A farm near Archerwill, Sask., is under quarantine after two mature cows died from anthrax, likely due to contaminated feed.
The cows were part of a herd that was vaccinated last summer when anthrax swept through northeastern Saskatchewan, leaving 806 animals dead. Another 148 animals died in Manitoba.
Sandra Stephens of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the herd has been vaccinated again, which she expects will work faster because most of the animals have some immunity left from the summer vaccination.
Although it is uncommon to see anthrax in the winter, Stephens said it isn’t unheard of. The cause is usually contaminated feed, which results when dirt that contains anthrax is swept up into bales.
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Stephens said that’s what happened in west-central Saskatchewan in 2004 after a drought. A large amount of dirt was found in canola bales that were later fed to cattle. In that case, more than 10 animals died in four days.
“Even mud stuck on the bottom of a bale” presents a risk, she said.
Anthrax shows up after a drought or flood disturbs spore-forming bacterium in the soil. Extremely wet conditions caused the problem last summer in an area that had never seen anthrax before.
When CFIA officials met with farmers in the affected areas they warned of potential feed problems.
“One of our recommendations for using hay was that it could be fed to animals that were vaccinated,” said Stephens.
In the recent Archerwill case, the animals perhaps didn’t respond to the vaccine as well as they could have, she added. Farmers who didn’t lose cattle but vaccinated simply as a precaution perhaps should have vaccinated twice.
Stephens said that decision was left up to producers and their veterinarians.
“You work with the best information that you’ve got and that’s what they did,” she said.
On the positive side, Stephens said anthrax discovered in the winter won’t form spores because of the cold weather. It needs oxygen and an ambient temperature of 20 C to form spores. This means there are fewer environmental risks.
It’s also easier to find the animals and identify the source of the problem because they are being fed rather than grazing in a pasture.
Stephens said CFIA will hold producer information sessions in April before the time vaccinations should begin.
