Treatments and Prevention Health & Disease

MLA to Map Anthrax Outbreaks

AUSTRALIA - A new Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) research project will aim to map Anthrax outbreaks and identify ways of controlling and reducing the impacts of this unpredictable disease.

4 September 2012

1 minute read

Oceania

MLA’s Manager Animal Health and Welfare, Dr Jim Rothwell, said the purpose of the project is to improve knowledge of how the disease spreads, improve diagnostics and prepare for future outbreaks.

“Being able to predict an outbreak would allow producers to vaccinate their animals in advance, instead of reacting to a known outbreak. Improved tools will also be developed to allow fast and simple diagnosis on-farm, resulting in rapid response and reducing the impact should an outbreak occur,” he said.

“Animal deaths from the disease, associated production and market access issues, as well as the potential for human infection make vigilance important,” he said.

The project, being conducted by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI), will create a database of different Anthrax strains and map outbreaks to allow investigation of the causes of outbreaks, which are currently not well understood.

Investigating the impact of a changing climate and events like flooding also helps to predict outbreaks, which will allow producers to be better prepared and have more effective vaccination programmes.

Anthrax is caused by infection with the bacteria Bacillus anthracis, present in soil. Outbreaks in sheep and cattle are most prominent in Victoria and New South Wales.