Wiktionary
n. (context disease English) A highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease that can affect animals with cloven hoof.
WordNet
n. acute contagious disease of cloven-footed animals marked by ulcers in the mouth and around the hoofs [syn: hoof-and-mouth disease]
Wikipedia
Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease (Aphthae epizooticae) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever for approximately two to six days, followed by blisters inside the mouth and on the feet that may rupture and cause lameness.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has severe implications for animal farming, since it is highly infectious and can be spread by infected animals through aerosols, through contact with contaminated farming equipment, vehicles, clothing, or feed, and by domestic and wild predators. Its containment demands considerable efforts in vaccination, strict monitoring, trade restrictions, and quarantines, and occasionally the killing of animals.
Susceptible animals include cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs, antelope, deer, and bison. It has also been known to infect hedgehogs and elephants; llamas and alpacas may develop mild symptoms, but are resistant to the disease and do not pass it on to others of the same species. In laboratory experiments, mice, rats, and chickens have been successfully infected by artificial means, but they are not believed to contract the disease under natural conditions. Humans are very rarely infected.
The virus responsible for the disease is a picornavirus, the prototypic member of the genus Aphthovirus. Infection occurs when the virus particle is taken into a cell of the host. The cell is then forced to manufacture thousands of copies of the virus, and eventually bursts, releasing the new particles in the blood. The virus is genetically highly variable, which limits the effectiveness of vaccination.
Usage examples of "foot-and-mouth disease".
Viruses: Foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, Rift Valley fever, vesicular stomatitis, vesicular exanthema, hog cholera, African swine fever, fowl plague, Newcastle disease, and equine encephalomyelitis.
The purpose of the plant was to make vaccines for protecting animals from foot-and-mouth disease, which is caused by a virus.
Cornwall had been in the throes of foot-and-mouth disease, and her son is a farmer.
They say nowadays that hedgehogs can carry swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease.
In 1931 it was the centre of an untraced outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.