July 2, 2004

Vesicular Stomatitis Spreads To US Texas Cattle

Vesicular stomatitis, an infectious disease causing blisters on the mouth and feet of infected animals, has spread to cattle in US Texas, the state Animal Health Commission said in a release.
 
Previously, it had been confined to horses in Texas and New Mexico.
 
The disease was confirmed this week in two head of cattle in Starr County, about 225 miles south of San Antonio. The TAHC, the state's livestock and poultry health regulatory agency, received notification of the positive laboratory results late Tuesday.
 
"The two infected cattle are on separate quarantined premises in Starr County and are the first confirmed cases in cattle in the U.S. since the l997 VS outbreak involving New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah," said Max Coats, deputy director for the TAHC's Animal Health Programs, in the release. "The l998 outbreak involved only horses."
 
One premise already was quarantined because of vesicular stomatitis in horses, but the other is a fresh quarantine with strictly cattle involved, Coats said.
 
"On one of the premises in Starr County, one cow among a handful of cattle tested positive for VS, and no other susceptible animals are on the site. On the second premise, the owner has an infected cow and horse, and there are about 30 other head of cattle and several horses that, at this point, have no clinical signs of VS and they have tested negative for the disease," he said.
 
As of June 30, vesicular stomatitis infection this year has been detected on 15 premises in Texas and New Mexico, the TAHC said. Disease investigations are continuing, but with the exception of the two sites in Starr County, all cases involve horses.
 
Vesicular stomatitis, a viral infection, occurs sporadically in the southwestern U.S. and is thought to be transmitted by sand flies and black flies. This painful, but short-term disease can cause blistering and erosions in and around the mouth, and around the muzzle, teats or hooves of horses, cattle, goats, swine, deer and some other livestock, the TAHC said. Infected animals with open sores can expose herd mates to the disease through close contact or by the sharing of feed buckets or bits. As a precaution, all infected and susceptible livestock on a premise are quarantined until at least 30 days after all infected animals have healed.
 
"The signs of VS mimic those of foot-and-mouth disease, a dangerous and highly contagious foreign animal disease that can strike cattle, swine, sheep, deer and other cloven-hooved animals, but not affect horses," Coats said.
 
Samples from horses are tested at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory at Ames, Iowa. As a safety measure, samples from cloven-hooved animals are shipped to Foreign Animal Disease Laboratory on Plum Island, N.Y., where they are subjected to testing for vesicular stomatitis and foot-and-mouth disease.