The survival of foot-and-mouth disease virus in raw and pasteurized milk and milk products

The Foot-and-Mouth Disease virus (FMDV) is not a public health threat, but it is highly contagious to cloven-footed animals. The virus is shed into milk up to 33 h before there are apparent signs of the disease in dairy cows, and, in extreme cases, signs of disease may not appear for up to 14 d. During this time, raw milk can serve as a vector for spread of the disease both at the farm and during transport to the processing plant by milk tanker. Raw milk and milk products fed to animals have the potential to cause infection, but the potential for pasteurized milk products to cause infection is largely unknown. Current minimum pasteurization standards may not be adequate to eliminate FMDV in milk completely. The purpose of this paper is to assess the literature on the thermal resistance of FMDV in milk and milk products, to identify the risks associated with ingestion of pasteurized products by animals, and to lay a strategy to prevent the spread of FMDV from contaminated milk.