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Published Date: 2003-10-25 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax, human & livestock - Armenia (Armavir)
Archive Number: 20031025.2671

ANTHRAX, HUMAN & LIVESTOCK - ARMENIA (ARMAVIR)
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Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 03:54:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: ArmeniaNow.com 19 Sep 2003 [edited]
<http://www.armenianow.com/2003/september19/investigation/>

Every year across Armenia, European Union grant money is spent in efforts
to combat disease spread from animals to humans. This year alone 950
million drams (about $1.6 million US) will be spent for protection against
brucellosis, tuberculosis, foot & mouth disease, and anthrax. But this
year, like others, consumers have taken ill from meat spoiled by the
potentially-deadly anthrax.
Because of being late with anthrax vaccination, Ara Grigoryan lost his only
cow, which was also his only source of income. "It's Armenian fate," he
says. On 13 Jul 2003, meat inspectors found the anthrax bacillus in beef
brought to a Komitas Street market from the village of Yervandasht, in the
Armavir region. "It is the first time anthrax appeared in our village," says
head of Yervandashat village Hovnan Avetisyan, "I never heard about it
before." [But it had to come from somewhere, so it has probably just gone
unreported in the area. - Mod.MHJ]
The only cow of 70-year-old Ara Grigoryan was taken ill with anthrax. "For
2 days I had been giving medicines to my cow against kiapanak (a disease of
cattle) but it didn't help. The cow fell to the ground and I knifed it
before it died. I told my son to take the cow to Yerevan and sell it there.
But it became clear that the cow had been infected with anthrax," says the
villager.
According to state regulations, vaccinations against anthrax should have
been made in the spring, but were not. Veterinary service specialists of
the Baghramian region vaccinated the village cattle only after learning of
the incident with Grigoryan's cow.
In 2001, 18 cases of the disease were reported in Armenia. [but not to OIE.
- Mod.MHJ] Last year [2002], 3 residents of Armenia became sick from
anthrax-infected meat, and 3 large cats at the Yerevan Zoo died from eating
meat spoiled with the bacteria. Inspectors from the Center for Veterinary
Service detected meat infected with anthrax in a meat market located on
Khorenatsi Street in central Yerevan.
Officially the only case of anthrax registered this year [2003] was the one
in Yervandashat. However, deputy chief doctor of Nork Hospital for
Infectious Diseases Gohar Tamazyan said that in July [2003] one man had
been diagnosed with cutaneous (skin) anthrax.
Geghetsik Sargsyan, of the Maisian village in the Armavir region, was one
of those who had been infected with anthrax in 2001. "My neighbor's animal
was sick. They slaughtered it and we bought the meat. I washed it, boiled
it, and we ate it. The next day a splinter cut my finger and it immediately
swelled like a big black bruise," she says showing a long scar on her arm.
"The next day my arm had swollen and my temperature had risen. In Armavir a
doctor cleaned my wound and sent me back home. 4 bruises appeared on the
arm of my neighbor who slaughtered his animal. One of the doctors in
Armavir made a diagnosis of anthrax." 4 people from the village were
infected with cutaneous anthrax from the same meat.
Animals are infected with anthrax from the soil, where bacilli can live for
centuries as spores. [A bit of an exaggeration. "Decades" sometimes;
"centuries" is frankly very rare and certainly very ill-documented. -
Mod.MHJ] When grass becomes sparse and short, grazing animals can also
become infected from swallowing spores in the soil.
Vaccination is 80 percent successful against anthrax. After every incident
of the disease, officials at the Ministry of Agriculture have pointed out
that even vaccinated animals can become infected. However, in every case in
Armenia, anthrax has come from cattle that had not been vaccinated.
"Theoretically vaccinated animals can be infected with anthrax," says
professor of the Academy of Agriculture Suren Grigoryan. "But that must be
a coincidence when an animal with weak immunity eats soil infected with
anthrax. But it happens very rarely. Delayed vaccination of animals becomes
a cause of anthrax in Armenia. There could be more cases. We know only about
the ones that have been reported."
[Byline: Vahan Ishkhanyan]
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Professor Grigoryan is correct. The STI and Sterne vaccines are normally
very efficient at protecting livestock. The usual "failures" of vaccination
occur when animals already incubating the disease are vaccinated, or when
animals are receiving antibiotics at the time they are vaccinated. People
forget that antibiotics inserted up the teat to control mastitis will
interfere with this live vaccine. Universal experience is that anthrax
deaths stop in a herd by 8 days after vaccination thanks to the immunity
provided and in spite of any continuing exposure. Farmer failure to
vaccinate in the spring ahead of the anthrax 'season' is a global problem
-- it is a common cause of outbreaks in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, for
example -- and was clearly compounded in this case by the local veterinary
officers' failure to enforce the state livestock regulations. I have stated
before that if human anthrax occurs, it is the veterinarian's fault and no
one else's, unless we are discussing occupational exposure from hair, wool,
or hides. In this instance the market meat inspectors in Yervandasht are to
be commended for their actions. - Mod.MHJ]

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