Anthrax not important, maybe
Monday, August 5, 2013
A change in how the federal government responds to an anthrax outbreak "is not expected to impact the provincial government or its stakeholders to a significant extent," writes a senior communications staffer for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The province requires that diagnostic laboratories report an anthrax death to the chief veterinarian under the provincial Animal Health Act which came into effect Jan. 1, and references anthrax as "an immediate notifiable hazard."
The last anthrax outbreak in Ontario was more than 10 years ago, but no one in the government, or at the Ontario Cattlemen's Association office remembers when. Outbreaks occur much more frequently on the Prairies.
Effective April 1, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which recently underwent a budget cut, ceased quarantining farms and compensating producers for animals lost during an infection outbreak. Neither will the feds help with the cleanup of dead animals and infected soil, nor subsequent vaccination of other animals.
According to an article written by Dr. Jamie Rothenburger, a veterinary pathology resident at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and published in the Western Producer newspaper in late May, anthrax is a highly fatal disease caused by the bacterium bacillus anthracis. Spores remain infective in some soils for decades. Animals can be vaccinated for it. People can get it. "Given our heavy snowfall last winter and flooding this spring, an anthrax outbreak may be on the agenda for this summer, and the CFIA will not be there to help." BF