Agriculture officials confirm 25th case of cattle anthrax in North Dakota this year

BISMARCK, N.D. — A new case of anthrax in livestock has been confirmed in Grant County in southwestern North Dakota, bringing the number of cases in the state this year to 25, according to state agriculture officials.

It is the first case reported in the state since August, all in Grant County and neighboring Hettinger and Adams counties, the North Dakota Department of Agriculture said in a news release Thursday. These cases have led to about 170 livestock deaths, state veterinarian Dr. Ethan Andress of North Dakota to the Bismarck Tribune.

While it's unusual to see a case this late in the year, Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said, the area has seen unusually mild weather recently, which has allowed livestock to remain on pastures where anthrax thrives.

This year's outbreak in North Dakota is the worst since 2005. From 2006 through last year, 18 cases of anthrax in cattle were confirmed. Outbreaks in the US are rare because a vaccine for livestock is cheap and easy to administer.

“Many producers in the affected area worked with veterinarians to administer vaccinations earlier this year,” Andress told the newspaper.

The disease is not contagious. It is caused by bacterial spores that can remain in the soil for decades and become active under ideal conditions, such as drought. In 2005, 109 cases of anthrax led to more than 500 confirmed animal deaths, with total livestock losses estimated at more than 1,000.

Naturally occurring anthrax poses little danger to humans. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infection in the U.S. typically results from handling carcasses or fluids from affected livestock without protective clothing, which transmits the spores and causes an easily treatable skin infection.

The greatest danger to humans comes from inhaling spores, which is almost always fatal if left untreated. But this is extremely rare, even for people who work with livestock, according to the CDC.

Most people associate anthrax with the weaponized version used in the 2001 attacks, when five people were killed and 17 others sickened by letters sent through the mail containing anthrax spores.

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This story has been corrected to note that this year's outbreak is the worst since 2005 in North Dakota, not South Dakota.