Cows moo about vesicular stomatitis, not milk

Last week, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, BAHA, imposed a quarantine on three areas of the Cayo District where cows and a horse had shown signs of a vesicular disease.  The authorities were hoping that the culprit was the less severe of two types of diseases and today the results are just back from the lab in Panama.  Farmers and agricultural authorities can breathe a sigh of relief that the virus affecting their farm mammals is Vesicular Stomatitis or Sore Mouth Disease, and NOT the deadly Foot and Mouth Disease, which has never been detected in this region.  Director of Animal Health at Central Farm in Cayo, Dr Miguel de Paz, told News Five this evening that while the disease has been contained only to the Cayo District, other areas within that district have reported similar signs in their animals.  Vesicular Stomatisis is passed on through the bite of some insects and can be transmitted from animal to animal or even to humans.  The disease is reported in Belize every year, but the fear was that this year it would spread to other areas. Those affected areas are: camps four and six in the Lower Barton Creek Mennonite community and a private ranch along the Western Highway.