Context: PM to launch National Animal Disease Control Programme for Foot and Mouth Disease.

• It is a 100% centrally funded programme, with a total outlay of Rs.12,652 crore from 2019 to 2024.
• It aims to control Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis by 2025 with vaccination and eventual eradication by 2030.

About Foot-and-mouth disease:

1. It is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease.
2. Affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids.
3. 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.
4. 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.