Cases of vesicular stomatitis have been confirmed in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties this week.
Vesicular stomatitis impacts horses, cattle, swine and sometimes sheep and goats. It presents itself as blister-like lesions in the mouth, tongue, lips, dental pad, nostrils and hooves.
“Oftentimes they'll be off feed, they may be drooling, showing pains in the mouth,” said Eric Anderson, San Luis Obispo County Animal Services Manager. “You might notice diarrhea and some nasal discharge as well. ”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared an outbreak in San Diego County back in May. Since then, one vesicular stomatitis premise has been confirmed in Texas while 47 others have been reported across eight counties in California. San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties were added to the list on Tuesday with one confirmed premise in each county. To view the latest report, click here.
Transmission can occur when an infected animal comes into direct contact with another animal but Anderson said it can also spread other ways.
“As well as fluid contamination of fomites, so things like feed bins, water buckets, water troughs and those sorts of things,” Anderson said. “Most commonly where we see a lot of the infection transmission occur is through vectors like mosquitoes, black flies and in some cases have been reported in the house flies as well. ”
The California Mid-State Fair is taking additional steps to prevent the disease from entering the fairgrounds. Colleen Bojorquez, the CEO of the California Mid-State Fair, said that starting on Wednesday, horses are being checked by a veterinarian upon arrival to the fairgrounds.
“We've asked all the livestock exhibitors to spray and disinfect all their tools, all their stalls, all their lead ropes,” Bojorquez explained. “We took away communal drinking for the animals, and they individually have their own set of drinking. We’ve also disinfected all of the horse stalls.”
Although people can get vesicular stomatitis, Anderson said cases are very rare.
“Those are really individuals that are immunocompromised with direct contact with the illness, laboratory workers that are dealing with the disease[…] so for the general person, routine hygiene should be all that they really need to worry about to keep themselves safe and healthy,” Anderson added.
He said the best thing people can do is wash their hands after handling animals, maintain sanitation around animals and use fly sprays or traps to keep vectors away.
If you suspect that your animal might have this disease, check in with your veterinarian and contact state animal health authorities.
To learn more about vesicular stomatitis, click here.
