foot-and-mouth disease

noun

ˈfu̇t-ən(d)-ˈmau̇th- 

: an acute contagious febrile disease especially of cloven-footed animals that is caused by serotypes of a picornavirus (species Foot-and-mouth disease virus of the genus Aphthovirus) and is marked by ulcerating vesicles in the mouth, about the hooves, and on the udder and teats

called also foot-and-mouth, hoof-and-mouth disease

compare hand, foot and mouth disease

Examples of foot-and-mouth disease in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2007, foot-and-mouth disease, which spreads rapidly through livestock populations and can easily cause billions of dollars of economic damage, leaked not once but twice from the same British laboratory within weeks, even after government intervention. —William MacAskill, Foreign Affairs, 11 Aug. 2022

Animals with foot-and-mouth disease typically exhibit symptoms such as fever and blisters, or sores in the mouth, teats and between the hooves. —Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 28 July 2022

The organization’s projects, which were built with the intention of detecting the earliest cases of animal-only and animal-to-human diseases—think foot-and-mouth disease among cattle or H5N1 avian flu— got repurposed during the past year as reporting and information-seeking channels for Covid. —Maryn McKenna, Wired, 5 May 2021

The only truly accurate measures of herd immunity are done in actual herds and come from studying animal viruses like rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease, said Dr. David M. Morens, Dr. Fauci’s senior adviser on epidemiology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. —New York Times, 24 Dec. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

foot-and-mouth disease

noun

: a virus disease especially of cattle that is marked by fever and by ulcers in the mouth, about the hooves, and on the udder

called also hoof-and-mouth disease

Medical Definition

foot-and-mouth disease

noun

: an acute contagious febrile disease especially of cloven-hoofed animals that is caused by any of seven serotypes of a picornavirus (species Foot-and-mouth disease virus of the genus Aphthovirus) and is marked by ulcerating vesicles in the mouth, about the hooves, and on the udder and teats

called also aftosa, aphthous fever, foot-and-mouth, hoof-and-mouth disease

compare hand, foot and mouth disease