Two cows have died of anthrax on a beef farm in south Wales which last had a case of the deadly disease 35 years ago, the Welsh Assembly Government said in a statement. Tests were conducted following the sudden deaths of five cows at the farm.
The statement, which was issued late Sunday, said that anthrax spores may persist for many years in the environment and an investigation was underway to see if the current outbreak was related to the earlier one.
Christianne Glossop, chief veterinary officer for Wales, said there was no threat to the public, farmers or any other livestock in the area. No cattle from the farm have been sent for the food chain for almost 12 months.
Anthrax is now a very rare disease in Britain and last occurred in Wales in 2002 and prior to that in Scotland in 1997. It was much more common in the previous century, with more than 1,000 cases in some years, but the number of cases declined sharply in the 1980s and 1990s.
Cattle are the most common victims but it can be transmitted to humans and there have been fears that anthrax spores could be used as a bio-terrorist weapon.