Foot-and-mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the acute infectious diseases (highly contagious disease) of animals. Foot-and-mouth disease virus causes the disease which can infect domestic animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and deer. Generally, it is believed that FMD is not very contagious to humans. However, humans can spread FMD by carrying the virus on their clothes and body. FMD breaks out all over the globe, because it is highly contagious to many animals. The earliest description of FMD was that by Hieronymi Fracastorii (1546). He described the disease, as being unusual and affecting only cattle, when it occurred in northern Italy in 1514.