Two laboratory workers taking antibiotics after anthrax found in bull

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Two people are taking antibiotics after handling samples taken from a bull at a dairy farm in Orimattila in the south of Finland. The bull was later found to have anthrax.
     It is the second time in four years that anthrax was found on the farm in question.
     According to Ville Lehtinen, a specialist in communicable diseases at the Finnish National Public Health Institute, the animal did not exhibit symptoms typical of anthrax, for which reason the handlers of the samples had not taken special precautions.
     The diagnosis came after the animal had been examined by a veterinarian because of an infection.
     
Prophylactic medication was administered to the two employees who had handled the samples in a laboratory. The medication was a precaution, as they had not exhibited any symptoms.
     “People catch serious anthrax infections through the lungs, and there was the risk in handling wet samples that the bacteria might become airborne in small particles”, Lehtinen says.
     The young bull found to have the disease was put down. In the coming week veterinary officials will examine all of the cattle on the farm for possible anthrax infection. One other animal on the farm has been exhibiting fever. A partial quarantine is in effect at the farm: no animals or animal feed may be taken from it
     Head inspector Sirpa Kiviruusu of the Finnish Food Safety Authority EVIRA believes that the infection has come from the soil on the farm, where anthrax spores can live for decades.
     “It is possible that soil may have gone into the animal feed on a wet summer like this”, Kiviruusu says.
     She adds that there is no indication that the disease would have spread outside the farm.
     
Four years ago anthrax was found on the farm, and at that time, no source was found for the outbreak. Suspicions focussed on a grazing meadow, where two cows were buried decades earlier. The meadow has been closed to animals since.
     Sirpa Kiviruusu says that another possible source of the disease is a bonemeal factory that lies upstream, but there is no certainty.
     According to Kiviruusu, officials are looking into whether or not mistakes were made in the previous inspection. She emphasises that no fault has been found in how the farm was managed. The farm has about 20 head of cattle.
     “It is an ordinary Finnish farm, and the people there have not caused this by their own action”, Kiviruusu says.
      Measures now being considered include scraping the topsoil to get rid of possible spores.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Veterinary students get antibiotics after autopsy of cow thought to have anthrax (8.11.2004)
  Finland Post considers filing massive claims for damages in anthrax scare (19.10.2001)

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