[Pak Daily Times] Bangladesh's government says it has gone onto a war footing to combat a major outbreak of anthrax that has infected hundreds of people and threatens to wreak havoc on the country's beef industry.Anthrax does not spread directly from one infected human or animal to another, but is spread through spores. Humans can contract anthrax from handling diseased animals or eating infected meat.
A high-level government committee tasked with containing the outbreak before the mid-November Mohammedan festival of Eid al Azha, traditionally celebrated with the mass slaughter of animals, has been formed. "We are launching a major counter-attack on the outbreak to bring it under control before Eid al Azha. We will vaccinate all at-risk cattle," livestock minister Abdul Latif Biswas, who is head of the committee, said. He called on the public not to panic, saying eating beef was safe.
Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest or inhale its spores while grazing.
More than 600 people have been infected by anthrax as it spreads further from its source in Bangladesh's dairy belt, with 12 districts confirming outbreaks in humans and cattle. Hundreds of cows have been infected and scores have died but no humans have perished as all reported infections are cutaneous, or skin, anthrax, which causes wound-like lesions but is not fatal if treated properly.
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last week thousands of shops selling beef in the capital Dhaka were deserted as panicked consumers turned their backs on red meat--with sales down more than 90 percent since the outbreak began mid-August.
"We used to slaughter 5,000 cows a day in Dhaka," the head of the country's meat traders' association Rabiul Alam told AFP. But last Thursday, for instance, "we slaughtered less than 100 cows," he said. "The price of beef has dropped significantly but still no one is buying--there is no demand for beef now," he said.