Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that primarily afflicts cloven-hoofed animals (including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, etc.) and poses a serious threat to agricultural interests around the world (see map above).

FMD - which only rarely infects humans (see APHIS slide below) -  is caused by a picornavirus, and has no relation to HFMD, which is a childhood disease in humans caused by a number of non-polio enteroviruses.

There are seven known types and more than 60 subtypes of the FMD virus, and different types are found in different parts of the world. This high number of variants is due to the virus's rapid mutation rate, which can lead to the emergence of new lineages and strains.

Two days ago Germany announced their first detection of FMD since 1988.  Although Bulgaria reported a limited outbreak in 2011, the last big outbreak in Europe was in the UK in 2001.

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Yesterday Germany's BMEL (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture) published the following update.  I'll have a postscript after the break. 

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)

On January 10, 2025, a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in water buffalo in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral infection of cloven-hoofed animals (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs). Zoo and wild animals can also contract FMD. The disease is widespread worldwide. The disease is harmless to humans. The disease has not occurred in Germany since 1988. The federal states are responsible for controlling animal diseases in Germany.

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has launched an investigation following the discovery of three water buffaloes infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Hönow, Germany, just northeast of Berlin. A preliminary risk analysis indicates that no animals have been directly transferred from the affected area to the Netherlands in the past six weeks. However, there may have been “indirect imports,” according to Dutch Minister of Agriculture Femke Wiersma in a letter to parliament.

FMD is a highly contagious disease that causes blisters and fever in cows, sheep, pigs, and other cloven-hoofed animals. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of infected animals die from the disease. In 2001, Europe experienced a severe FMD epidemic, leading to the culling of hundreds of thousands of animals in the Netherlands as a preventive measure.

The FMD cases at a German farm, where a total of 14 water buffaloes were infected, have been described by Wiersma as "surprising and very disappointing." The last reported case of FMD in an EU member state occurred in 2007. “I was shocked by this news and I am very concerned about the risk of an outbreak in the Netherlands,” Wiersma wrote.

If any animals or products from the German state of Brandenburg, where the outbreak occurred, have entered the Netherlands through indirect imports, “these businesses in the Netherlands will be blocked and further investigated,” Wiersma added

There is much interest in exactly what changes the HPAI H5Nx virus would need in order to become a more `humanized' virus; like seasonal H3N2 and H1N1 which have a strong affinity for the alpha 2,6 receptor cells most commonly found in the human respiratory system.

While several concurrent mammalian adaptations are likely required to create a pandemic strain, the ability of avian flu viruses to bind to human α2-6 receptor cells is considered the single biggest obstacle the virus must overcome in order to successfully spread in humans.