Anthrax, human & livestock - Zimbabwe

Date: Monday 18 December 18 2:49 PM ET
From: ProMED-mail
Source: Reuters [edited]


Nine people have died and 700 have been hospitalised after an outbreak of
anthrax in a district southwest of Harare in the past fortnight, a Zimbabwe
government spokesman said on Monday.

The spokesman said 44 head of cattle had been destroyed. "There has been an
outbreak of anthrax in the Mhondoro district, which was detected more than 2
weeks ago, but it has now been brought under control," he told Reuters.

He added that Mhondoro was outside the area supplying beef exports to the
European Union (news - web sites), which imports up to 9500 tonnes from
Zimbabwe annually.

"The outbreak is in the communal (peasant) areas and not the commercial
areas...although we are still investigating," the spokesman said.

Zimbabwe's acting director of veterinary services Wellbourne Madzima told
the South African News Agency (SAPA) that his men had been denied access to
farms by war veterans, making it difficult to investigate the outbreak.

The cattle disease is transmitted to humans through infected animal meat,
bones, hair and excrement.

[There are speculations that] farm invasions and Zimbabwe's worsening
economic crisis had contributed to the anthrax outbreak.

The invasion of commercial farms has been singled out as a factor
responsible for the spread of the disease, allowing infected cattle to
mingle in an uncontrolled manner with commercial herds. Zimbabwe's foreign
currency shortage [is also speculated as having] prevented the country from
buying vaccines.

South Africa was not concerned that the disease would spread across the
border as it had strict controls in place and a vaccination programme to
prevent an anthrax outbreak in its herds, said Gideon Bruckner, the
director of veterinary services in South Africa.

"The normal border measures are in place and the chances of importing an
infected carcass is nil," Bruckner told Reuters. "Anthrax vaccination is
compulsory in South Africa and has been for many years now," he added.

--
ProMED-mail


[There is an inconsistency in this article as to whether the outbreak has
spread to commercial farms or has been restricted to "peasant farms."
Perhaps the situation will be clarifi

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail, a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org