09/14/05 Vesicular Stomatitus

Vesicular Stomatitis I've been reading quite a lot about vesicular stomatitis lately. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back after this with some information. Vesicular stomatitis, or VS has been written about quite often in the last few weeks, so I called one of our local veterinarians, Dr. Jeff Kerr, and talked to him about the illness. Dr. Kerr says the main reason you see most of the attention given to VS is the fact it mimics foot and mouth disease so closely, but death is rare in VS cases. Horses seem to contact the illness most readily of all livestock and since horses don't get foot and mouth disease the big worry while the virus runs its course is keeping the horse comfortable, eating and hopefully drinking water. Horses and cattle show basically the same symptoms such as excessive saliva secretions, oral lesions and ulcers, lesions of the nostrils and coronary band of the hoof. But when a cow shows these symptoms, a test is needed right away to make sure it is not foot and mouth disease. Foot and mouth disease is a devastating illness that we don't need in the U.S. since foot and mouth is controlled by quarantine and killing all infected and suspected cattle within the quarantine area. Scientists are not sure how the VS virus spreads, but saliva secretions carried by insects and animal- to- animal contact are the prime suspects. At the present time, VS has been diagnosed in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana with Montana recording four confirmed cases in cattle. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter 8/31/05; Interviews