LONDON — Foot-and-mouth disease is a relatively mild livestock ailment, and it is not a danger to humans, but once a farm animal has been exposed, it is killed to safeguard trade.

        Foot-and-mouth disease is probably the most infectious illness in the world and the most important economically, according to the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, England.

        It can destroy livelihoods and food supplies almost overnight. Animals that recover produce less meat or milk. However, the meat is safe to eat, unlike that from animals infected with mad cow disease, which has been linked to a brain-wasting disease in humans.

        It's all about trade. A country that imports livestock touched by the disease risks infecting its own. Soon after the outbreak was detected last week, Britain banned livestock and meat exports.

        Any infected animals, or susceptible livestock on the same farm, are being killed and then burned or buried.

        The virus can be spread by anything it touches.

        So far, foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed at 40 locations across Britain, and more than 2,000 animals have been destroyed, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

        Poor nations that don't export meat let the disease just run its course. But in developed countries, extermination is the norm.

        “Like for any infectious disease, global travel creates a world community and the only way to stop it is to stop the animals moving and to stamp it out,” said Chris Bostock, director of the Institute for Animal Health. “It's purely about trade.”

        Britain's Meat and Livestock Commission says the industry is losing $12 million a week.

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