October 27, 2015

expert reaction to a reported case of anthrax in a cow on a Wiltshire farm

Public Health England has confirmed that a case of anthrax, a bacterial disease, has occurred in a cow on a farm in Wiltshire.

Dr Derek Gatherer, Lecturer, Lancaster University, said:

“Anthrax is contracted by inhalation or ingestion of its spores, producing a severe pneumonia or gastrointestinal syndrome respectively, or by the spores entering a cut, producing a characteristic ulceration. Historically mortality rates were high, but antibiotics and supportive therapy have reduced deaths in recent years. Cases in humans are very rare, and spread from person to person is limited to situations where needles are shared, either deliberately or accidentally. Almost all human cases occur in individuals involved in processing animal products, either for food or in the animal wool/skins industry and 95% of these are via skin infection. Proper cooking of meat will destroy anthrax spores.  Vaccines are available for livestock in high incidence areas (none of which are in northern Europe) but their use in humans has been generally confined to the military, given concern about the use of anthrax spores as a biological weapon.  Occasionally individuals (and livestock) who are deemed at risk during an agricultural outbreak may be offered vaccination.

“DEFRA and PHE will be taking this outbreak very seriously and will be cordoning off the infected farm and testing all animals as well as soil and water samples in the vicinity.  Unlike with bird flu and foot-and-mouth however, there is unlikely to be any necessity for a cull given the absence of direct transmission from cow to cow or cow to human.”

Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay, Lecturer of Vaccine Bioprocess Development, UCL, said:

“While anthrax is known as a biological weapon, it should also be noted that anthrax is also naturally occurring animal disease. Occasionally, there have been isolated outbreaks in farms and livestock. Transmission is mainly through spores that can survive for extended periods of time and there have been a few documented cases of accidental human anthrax exposure through non-treated animal skins and in rare cases contaminated meat. In this instance the infected animal has been removed from the food chain and the area isolated. Risk of transmission to humans from this case is very low. ”

Declared interests

Dr Derek Gatherer:  No conflicts of interest to declare

Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay: I have no conflicts of interest