Laboratory confirmed anthrax in meat of slaughtered cow in Karaganda region
As earlier reported, state of emergency was declared in Yerkindik settlement for suspected anthrax outbreak. All required quarantine and prevention activities are underway.
According to reports, the villager slaughtered the sick cow and gave its meat to neighbors and relatives.
As the Regional Healthcare Department informed, 8 people including a 10-year-old child suspected in contamination with anthrax were taken to the Regional Infectious Diseases Hospital from June 19 to 21. Two of them – a 33-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man – died. All of them are the residents of Yerkindik settlement.
Head of the Karaganda Regional Veterinary Department Sayat Mussin gave a press conference today concerning the situation in the settlement.
“All the livestock in the village got an anthrax vaccine. And this cow was vaccinated too,” he said and added that the animal could be immune-compromised after winter.
Alongside, the specialists do not exclude other sources of infection, like animal burial sites.
“I think, in two or three days we will find out the source of infection,” said Mussin.
The last anthrax case in this area was registered in 1965, when one cow only got sick.
As per archival data, 16 hotbeds of anthrax were revealed in Shet district from 1938 through 2003.
“The last case of contamination of an animal with anthrax in Karaganda region was revealed in 1988 in Ulytau district,” S.Mussin added.
