The Ministry of Agriculture warned about her … What is the foot -and -foot fever and are it spreading in Lebanon?

Neighboring countries suffer from a disturbing spread of epidemics and viruses, not only on the human level, but also at the level of animals. From here, the Ministry of Agriculture warned today of the risk of moving foot -and -mouth disease to Lebanon, after monitoring new cases in a number of neighboring countries. What is this virus and how dangerous it is?

Foot -and -“jellyse” fever that was first documented in 1870, is a highly infected viral viral disease that affects animals with hairdressers such as cows, sheep, goats and pigs. It is characterized by ulcers in the mouth, feet and supplication, and may lead to the death of small animals in particular, as well as significant economic losses in the livestock sector.

The virus can be easily transmitted by contacting with infected animals, contaminated agricultural tools, vehicles, clothing, or feed, so procedures require great efforts to combat this disease that include vaccination, strict monitoring, imposing commercial restrictions, imposing quarantine, and slaughtering infected or carrier animals.

Humans are rarely infected with foot -and -mouth virus. As for young children, they can develop hand, foot, and mouth, which is often mixed with foot -and -mouth, but it differs from it.

The main cause of football disease is the Afto virus (FMF) and is characterized by a large genetic diversity, which reduces the effectiveness of vaccination, while the disease has been documented.

The FMF custody period ranges between one day and twelve days, while the disease is characterized by a very high temperature that decreases quickly after two to three days, and the appearance of blisters in the mouth lead to excessive discharge of sticky or foam games, in addition to blisters that may explode causing the larvae.

Adult animals may suffer from weight loss that may last for a long time without recovery, and milk production in cows may be greatly affected.

In Lebanon, and because the Ministry of Agriculture indicated that field indicators show an increase in the possibility of infection transmission to Lebanese territory, especially in light of border interventions and joint animal activity, which called “all livestock breeders, farmers and farms owners, to tighten the application of preventive measures and take urgent steps to protect herds and contribute to preventing the outbreak of the disease on Lebanese lands.”

On the recommended preventive measures, the Ministry drew the need to enhance biological security inside farms by controlling the income and exit movement, and applying the cleansing and sterilization mechanisms regularly.
It also recommended preventing animal mixing between farms, especially in the border areas and common pastures, as well as immunizing livestock using approved and registered vaccines with the Ministry of Agriculture, and at the expense of private breeders, provided that the cows are vaccinated with two doses annually, and sheep at one dose annually.

It should be noted that the UNIFIL Indian peacekeepers launched last March a major vaccination campaign for tens of thousands of livestock against foot -and -mouth disease in 15 towns within their work area in southeastern Lebanon, with the aim of controlling the spread of foot -and -mouth disease.