What is the Difference Between FMD and Vesicular Stomatitis

The key difference between FMD and vesicular stomatitis is that FMD or foot mouth disease is a viral infection of livestock transmitted by aerosolized excretions of infected animals, while vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease of livestock transmitted primarily by biting flies and midges.

Livestock management is an important aspect of the modern world due to the significant economic impact it creates. It is always critical to maintain healthy or disease-free livestock in order to gain the maximum economic yield. Foot mouth disease and vesicular stomatitis are two different diseases that affect livestock, especially cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is FMD
3. What is Vesicular Stomatitis
4. Similarities – FMD and Vesicular Stomatitis
5. FMD vs Vesicular Stomatitis in Tabular Form
6. Summary – FMD vs Vesicular Stomatitis

What is FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease)?

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral infection of livestock transmitted by aerosolized excretions of infected animals. This disease affects many livestock animals such as cattle, swine, goats, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants. FMD causes high mortality in young animals but is not often severe in adult animals. In young animals, FMD causes high mortality due to myocarditis. FMD is characterized by fever and blisters appearing on the teats and between hooves. The virus that causes FMD is an aphthovirus of the viral family Picornaviridae, which includes seven strains (A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, and Asia1).

FMD vs Vesicular Stomatitis in Tabular Form

Figure 01: FMD

FMD is usually transmitted through aerosolized excretions and secretions of infected animals. Therefore, healthy animals get infected via respiratory or oral routes. FMD is easily spread through many different pathways. These include contaminated materials such as hay, feed milk, biologics, contaminated clothing and equipment, contaminated food fed to healthy animals, and infected aerosols. To minimize and prevent FMD, the implementation of farm-level measures is vital. These include controlled introduction of new animals into existing herds, monitoring illnesses and effective reporting systems, safe and appropriate disposal of carcasses and manure, regular cleaning of livestock-related equipment, and following disinfection protocols. Vaccination is one effective treatment option available since FMD is a treatable disease.

What is Vesicular Stomatitis?

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is a viral disease that affects livestock, transmitted primarily by biting flies and midges. The characteristic feature of this vesicular stomatitis disease is the development of vesicular lesions on the lips, ears, tongue, ventral abdomen, and coronary bands upon contracting the infection. The virus responsible for vesicular stomatitis belongs to the family Rhabdoviridae and genus Vesiculovirus. Transmission of the virus directly occurs through contact with infected animals with clinical disease (those with lesions) or by biting insects. The insects that transmit the disease includes black flies (Simulidae), sand flies (Lutzomyia), and biting midges (Culicoidesspp).

Vesicular stomatitis is generally self-limiting with no specific treatment options available. Cleaning the lesions with mild disinfectants could prevent the development of secondary infections. Moreover, isolating affected animals and moving healthy animals from affected places are also effective preventive measures for vesicular stomatitis.

What are the Similarities Between FMD and Vesicular Stomatitis?

FMD and vesicular stomatitis are two disease conditions that infect livestock.
They are viral-borne diseases.
Both infections primarily affect the mouth, lips, and tongue.
Moreover, preventive strategies can be used to manage the diseases.

What is the Difference Between FMD and Vesicular Stomatitis?

FMD is a viral infection of livestock transmitted by aerosolized excretions of infected animals, while vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease of livestock transmitted primarily by biting flies and midges. Thus, this is the key difference between FMD and vesicular stomatitis. Moreover, the disease FMD is treated through vaccinations; however, vesicular stomatitis does not have a specific treatment. Besides, Aphthovirus is responsible for FMD, while Rhabdoviridae is responsible for vesicular stomatitis.

The below infographic presents the differences between FMD and vesicular stomatitis in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – FMD vs Vesicular Stomatitis

FMD is a viral infection of livestock that is transmitted by aerosolized excretions of infected animals, while vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease of livestock that is transmitted primarily by biting flies and midges. This is the key difference between FMD and vesicular stomatitis. FMD is characterized by fever and blisters appearing on the teats and between the hooves. The virus that causes FMD is an aphthovirus of the viral family Picornaviridae. The characteristic feature of vesicular stomatitis disease is the development of vesicular lesions on the lips, ears, tongue. FMD can be treated through vaccination, but vesicular stomatitis is self-limiting with no specific treatment. So, this is the summary of the difference between FMD and vesicular stomatitis.

Reference:

1. “Foot and Mouth Disease.” World Organisation for Animal Health, OIE, 16 Feb. 2022.
2. Pelzel-McCluskey, Angela. “Vesicular Stomatitis in Large Animals – Generalized Conditions.” MSD Veterinary Manual, MSD Veterinary Manual, 28 Feb. 2022.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Foot and mouth disease in mouth” By Unknown author – USDA online photography center [1] Image Number:01cs0006 (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia