“If the meat of the animal is frozen with the alum, the infection will continue”
Dean Prof. from Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine provided information on the SAT-2 serotype specific to livestock, a new type of foot and mouth disease never seen before in Turkey. Dr Ender Yarsan said foot and mouth disease is a disease known as land, but the latter situation occurred with the derivation of a different serotype. Yarsan said the disease is particularly prevalent in ungulates, saying: “The lethal effect is extremely low, it causes significant yield losses, but the prevalence, especially infestation, is extremely high. There is an infestation rate of up to 100 percent,” he said.
Noting that there are 7 subtypes of foot and mouth disease virus, Yarsan said: “The difficulty of fighting the disease is related to the development of separate vaccines for different serotypes, and if we look at it that way, a vaccination program should be rapidly developed.”
“It is extremely rare for it to pass to humans”
Recalling that foot-and-mouth disease and similar diseases are called zoonotic diseases, Yarsan said, “Maybe foot-and-mouth disease is one of the rare diseases that is least able to pass through. It has been argued that if there is close contact with infected sick animals, if there is a contamination with meat or milk, it is very rarely transmitted. However, it is generally stated that the risk of transmission to humans and the risk of infection in humans is extremely rare. It’s big enough not to be a concern,” he said.
Yarsan explained that the fight against foot and mouth disease is the way of vaccination and quarantine, saying, “Therefore, a vaccination program is applied twice a year for large animals and once a year for small animals. The fight is achieved with this, if there is a disease, measures related to quarantine are involved, and along with it, the fight against foot and mouth disease is carried out as a whole.
“One of the main factors that will occur is yield loss”
Emphasizing that if there is an infection in the animals, it can lead to yield loss, Yarsan said, “One of the main factors that will occur is yield loss, especially in meat production and milk production. It is stated that the yield loss in milk under normal conditions on a scientific scale is around 15%. Yield loss in meat is also around 10%. But if this picture worsens, if it becomes more prevalent, it becomes more chronic, and if it persists, there is a concern that these numbers will rise as well .”
Pointing to the importance of disinfection processes in the fight against foot and mouth disease, Yarsan said, “Clinical symptoms occur due to foot and mouth disease. If these vesicles, especially on the nasal mucosa and especially on the feet, burst over time, the infections that we call secondary infections arise. Then the picture gets worse,” he said.
“If the meat of the animal is frozen with the alum, the infection will continue”
Yarsan stated that after the foot and mouth disease animals are vaccinated, disinfected and quarantined, no treatment will be needed when the animal recovers. to be eaten or not:
“If there is a serious weakness or other kind of disease as a whole, the meat is not recommended and is not sent to slaughter in the same way. If an animal with a scrotum is slaughtered, if their meat is frozen, this infection will continue, that is, the virus will not be inactivated. But if kept at plus 4 degrees after slaughter, the virus will be inactivated within 24-48 hours. In particular, the environment formed by the lactic acid growing in the environment inactivates the virus and can be safely consumed without any contamination. For example, at this point of consumption, it is recommended not to consume the parts related to blood related to the bone, and if there is a case related to meat, it is absolutely recommended to remove the bone from the bone to separate and destroy it, and consume the flesh that way.