REGINA — Five cattle from a herd near Harris, Sask. have died from anthrax.
Specimens from the dead animals were sent to Agriculture Canada’s lab in Ottawa where the cause of death was confirmed as anthrax, said George Luterbach, Ag Canada’s program manager of animal health for the mid-west region.
The carcasses were burned and buried. The soil where the animals died and were buried, on the farm southwest of Saskatoon, was disinfected, said Luterbach.
By law, suspected anthrax cases must be reported to Agriculture Canada. Humans can also contract anthrax but this is rare.
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Anthrax can develop when bacteria from a dead animal changes to spores. The spores are extremely hardy in the environment and can lie dormant in the soil for decades. Animals usually contract it through inhalation of the spores when grazing and die within 12 hours.
“It does not spread easily from animal to animal,” he said. “It’s usually a very isolated event.”
Contaminated sites
Luterbach said the most probable source of anthrax is exposure to sites previously contaminated by bison. Over time, through various farming practices, the sites were dispersed or covered up. Disruption of the soil for construction of a new building can also disturb these old sites.
A creek in the Harris area flooded this year for the first time in 20 years.
“I’m speculating that perhaps what we had here was flooding and some erosion and exposure of a previously contaminated area.”
Some cattle producers in the immediate area might want to vaccinate their herds but this is “not considered necessary on a widespread scale.”
Producers should contact their veterinarians in the case of a sudden, unexplained death, which could indicate anthrax.
The only other reported cases of anthrax in Saskatchewan were in 1973 and 1980. This year there has been one suspected case in a Manitoba bison herd, but none in Alberta, where 12 cattle died last year.
