Pronunciation: - ˌ m ī - ə -kär- ' d ī -t ə s
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin
Date: 1947
: an acute febrile disease especially of swine and some nonhuman primates caused by a picornavirus (species Encephalomyocarditis virus of the genus Cardiovirus ) and marked by degeneration and inflammation of skeletal and cardiac muscle and lesions of the central nervous system