A new study on foot-and-mouth disease among buffalo in South Africa could help explain how certain extremely contagious pathogens are able to persist and reach endemic stage in a population, long after they’ve burned through their initial pool of susceptible hosts.

The findings, publishing in Science Magazine, are particularly relevant as the world’s human population is closing in on the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, and researchers and policymakers are facing the reality that the virus is not going away anytime soon.

The study raises the same question that many are asking now about COVID-19, said lead author Anna Jolles, an epidemiology professor in OSU’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine with a dual appointment in the College of Science. After responding to the disaster situation, what happens next?

«Is there any way of really limiting the infection after it becomes endemic?» she said. «A study in a lab can’t answer that, because this is a question at the population scale, and in the lab you don’t have whole animal populations and all the variation among hosts, pathogens or the environment. Looking in wild hosts is one way to get insights into how this can play out.»

Co-authors on the paper include OSU assistant professor Brianna Beechler and associate professor Jan Medlock.

Foot-and-mouth disease does not cause serious illness in buffalo, though when it spreads to cattle and other cloven-hoofed species, it can cause painful sores in the mouth and on the feet. It does not infect humans.

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Materials provided by Oregon State University. Original written by Molly Rosbach. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.