An atypical Bacillus anthracis infection in a bull—A potential occupational health hazard

Abstract

Bacillus anthracis infecting cattle is usually identified based on the typical symptom: sudden death. Bacillus anthracis causing atypical symptoms may remain undiagnosed and represent a potential occupational health hazard for, that is veterinarians and producers, butchers and tanners. In the year 2004, one case of sudden death in a dairy farm in southern Finland was diagnosed as bovine anthrax. Four years later 2008, an atypical case of anthrax was diagnosed in the same holding. The bull was taken to the Production Animal Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki because of fever, loss of appetite and a symmetrically swollen scrotal sac. Penicillin treatment cured the fever but not the swollen scrotum. Before the intended therapeutic castration, a punctuate consisting of 10 ml fluid collected into a syringe from the scrotal sac was cultivated on blood agar at 37°C. After 24 hr, an almost pure culture of a completely non‐hemolytic Bacillus cereus‐like bacteria was obtained. The strain was identified as B. anthracis using Ba‐specific primers by the Finnish Food Safety Authority (RUOKAVIRASTO). After the diagnosis, the bull was euthanized and destroyed, the personnel were treated with prophylactic antibiotics and the clinic was disinfected. In this particular case, treatment with water, Virkon S and lime seemed to be effective to eliminate endospores and vegetative cells since no relapses of anthrax have occurred in 10 years. This case is the last reported anthrax case in Finland.

Sudden Death, Causes and Diagnostic Approaches in Dairy Cattle: Traditional Review

“…İşletmede B. antrachis teşhis edilen bir ani ölüm olgusundan 4 yıl sonra, yüksek ateş, iştahsızlık ve skrotumda şişkinlik semptomları görülen boğada, penisilin tedavisi ile ateşin düşmesine rağmen skrotumdaki şişkinliğin geçmediği tespit edilmiş ve skrotumdan alınan sıvıdan B. antrachis izole edilmiştir. 51 Bu olgular, enfeksiyonun görüldüğü bölgelerde, antraks etkeninin sporlanma ve enfeksiyon yeteneğini koruma özelliği dikkate alınarak, sürü sağlığı programlarında koruma ve kontrol uygulamalarının sürekliliğinin sağlanmasının önemini göstermektedir.…”

Epididymitis with Pasteurella multocida isolated from two male Japanese Black beef calves

“…Infection of the male reproductive tract occurs in deferentitis, epididymitis and orchitis, which leads to infertility and disease transmission to female animals (Givens & Marley, 2008). In cattle, most cases of infection of the male reproductive tract are caused by microbes such as bovine herpesviruses (Chastant‐Maillard, 2015), Brucella abortus (Trichard et al., 1982), Bacillus anthracis (Friman et al., 2019), coliforms, Truperella pyogenes , Staphylococcus spp. (Samkange et al., 2022), Salmonella Typhimurium (Mahmoud et al., 2020) and Trypanosoma evansi (Sivajothi & Reddy, 2019).…”