Anthrax outbreak on local farm

TWO cows on a farm in Westbury were confirmed to have anthrax after they died last month. It is the country’s first case of the disease in livestock in nearly ten years.

The animals both died at the end of October on land off Storridge Road, and were discovered to have had the lethal disease in postmortem examinations.

When the infections were discovered, both cows were incinerated and movement restrictions were put in place at the farm; no cattle from the field have entered the food chain, say health experts. A footpath near the farm has been closed to the public as a precaution.

The last recorded outbreak in UK livestock was in 2006, and no people in Britain have been diagnosed with the disease in seven years.

The discovery hit national headlines as soon as it was announced, but was described as “isolated” and the risk to the general public is considered to be extremely low. The people most at risk are abattoir workers and other people who handle the dead animals.

Wiltshire Council’s director of public health Maggie Rae said none of the people who had been in contact with the animals had showed any signs of illness more than 72 hours afterwards. She said, “We worked with our partners both locally and nationally and swift action was taken to deal with the immediate risk.

“We know any risk is low,  however as you would expect, we are taking this very seriously and we will be doing everything in our power to support the national and local experts to keep Wiltshire safe.”

The council is working alongside Public Health England, the Department for Environment and Food Affairs, the Environment Agency and Plant Health Agency to deal with the situation.

Anthrax is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Bacillus anthracis and can be deadly, but it  is extremely rare in Western Europe and struggles to spread from one animal to another or between people. It largely survives as spores that hide away in soil for years before entering an animal through a cut or wound.

The farm also had an outbreak of the disease in 1996, which was thought to have been caused by groundworks on the old tannery site near Black Horse Lane.

Local man Henry Leigh used to live near the tannery site and contacted White Horse News with his concerns.

Henry said, “When the tan yard closed down there was a lot of publicity about the presence of anthrax in the filtration ponds. There are currently diggers working at the foot of Black Horse Lane and there is a metal structure still standing that is part of the former tannery. I think some of the filtration beds may have been hidden as they were allegedly not to be  developed on; I don’t believe this is a coincidence.”

The disease can cause feverish symptoms, loss of appetite and fits in livestock, but is considered relatively easy to identify.

The infectious spores can remain in soil for many years, and have been known to reinfect animals decades after other cases in an area.