Cattle with foot-and-mouth disease
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Early signs of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cattle are fever, lameness, shivering, long strings
of sticky saliva, sudden drop in milk production and blisters.
As the disease develops, infected cattle may:
- stop eating
- develop mastitis
- have quivering lips
- produce frothy saliva that drips to the ground at intervals
- be sitting down away from the grazing herd.
At first suspicion of sickness or a disease that concerns you, contact your local vet or notify Agriculture Victoria on the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline 1800 675 888.
More information
Look for the signs of foot-and-mouth disease
Sheep and goats with foot-and-mouth disease
Stringy saliva falling to the ground from a cow’s mouth
Ruptured foot blister on a cow, being held open with tweezers
Freshly ruptured foot blister of a cow showing as a red sore with whitish tags of tissue
Blue gloved hand pointing out blanched or whitish areas on a cow’s tongue as unruptured blisters
Orange - red and dented area on tongue showing healing lesion
Red open wound showing ruptured mouth blister on cow’s dental pad
Close up of older lesion on cow’s dental pad, shown as off-white tissue
Large red ruptured blister on the gum of the upper jaw of a cow
Images courtesy of The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD)