A Foothold on Foot-and-Mouth

If you've been traveling in Europe lately, you won't find a warm welcome on some parts of campus. In fact, if you try to go into the Dairy Cattle Instruction and Research Center — or one of the other campus buildings that houses animals — you'll be met by a block-lettered sign telling you to stay out.

The signs, which forbid recent visitors to England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, are part of an extraordinary effort the university is making to try to keep its animals free from foot-and-mouth disease, the highly contagious infection that has ravaged farms in parts of Europe, but has yet to make its way to the United States.

"We are taking any steps that we can to improve the situation and reduce the risk," says Mark Cook, an animal science professor who, along with dairy scientist Dave Combs, helped draft the new rules, which took effect this spring at all campus animal facilities and university-run farms. The policies prohibit anyone who has traveled in infected areas from having contact with animals here for at least five days after returning to campus. Other measures call for faculty and students to wear protective boots and clean clothes when working with animals, either on or off campus.

Cook says the new rules are necessary because the university has so many international connections. "We have faculty who go all over the world; we have students who go all over the world; and we have visitors from all over the world," he says. "If any place is vulnerable, it is a university."

People have cooperated with the rules, Cook says, most likely because they appreciate the potentially devastating effects of infection. Because the disease is highly contagious, a case on campus would require drastic measures — including wide exterminations of animals — to keep it from spreading into Wisconsin's farms. The cost would be enormous, wasting millions of dollars and years of research, he notes.

And although it was the foot-and-mouth threat that brought on the new rules, most of the measures will remain in place indefinitely, Cook says, noting that they should help prevent the accidental spread of other viruses and diseases.

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