What is the news : FMD disease outbreak reported in 3 districts of Karnataka

Which districts : Chickballapur, Bengaluru Urban, and Ramanagaram

What is FMD:

• It is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease.
• Affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids.
• Symptoms: The virus causes a high fever for two or three days, followed by blisters inside the mouth and on the feet that may rupture and cause lameness.
• The virus responsible for the disease is a picornavirus, the prototypic member of the genus Aphthovirus

Spread of the disease and Concerns associated: 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.

Can Humans be affected?

• Humans can be infected with foot-and-mouth disease through contact with infected animals, but this is extremely rare. Some cases were caused by laboratory accidents.
• Because the virus that causes FMD is sensitive to stomach acid, it cannot spread to humans via consumption of infected meat, except in the mouth before the meat is swallowed.
• Symptoms of FMD in humans include malaise, fever, vomiting, red ulcerative lesions (surface-eroding damaged spots) of the oral tissues, and sometimes vesicular lesions (small blisters) of the skin.

What is the reasons cited for  spread : Vaccination against FMD is strictly carried out once in six months to prevent the outbreak of the viral disease. But the previous round of vaccination scheduled sometime in October 2020 could not be carried out due to COVID-19 pandemic.