Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) causes significant suffering in affected animals and triggers mass culling policies. Welfare-focused approaches to FMD management are increasingly being developed.
FMD creates a dual welfare crisis: the disease itself causes significant suffering through painful oral and pedal lesions that prevent eating and walking, and the response in many countries - mass culling of potentially healthy animals within control zones - causes additional welfare harm at enormous scale. The 2001 UK cull of 10 million animals, many healthy, was conducted under welfare-compromising conditions including on-farm killing using methods that caused significant suffering. The vaccination alternative, used in most of the world, prevents this mass welfare harm while controlling disease. The resistance of some countries to vaccination because of trade status concerns - countries without FMD vaccination claim higher market access - reflects a trade-off where animal welfare interests are subordinated to agricultural economics.