Anthrax sheep death in north-west Victoria leads to quarantine
Updated
Quarantine measures are in place at a sheep property near Swan Hill in Victoria, with a confirmed case of anthrax.
Animal health staff were called to the property in north-west Victoria after a number of sheep died suddenly.
Victoria's chief veterinary officer Charles Milne said anthrax is a naturally occurring bacteria and has been found in Victoria before.
"One animal that has died on the farm has been examined and confirmed as having anthrax," he said.
"We had 33 other animals that have died, some of which may have died from anthrax but testing has not been able to be undertaken on those because they died some time ago.
"There have been a number of other deaths on the farm, the carcasses of all the animals have been destroyed so any residual infection is removed.
"The animals on the farm have all been vaccinated to ensure that if there is any residual infection in the environment they are protected.
"A ring of farms around the premises will also be vaccinated over the coming days."
Farmer being monitored for the disease
Veterinarian Charles Milne said it was difficult for the disease to jump to humans and expressed confidence the quarantine measures would protect the general public from exposure.
But he said one farmer was being monitored for signs of the illness.
"There is a very low risk of human infection; you will actually need to handle the infected material to be at risk," he said.
"So in terms of risk to the general public, it's absolutely nil.
"But one of the farmers who is on the premises has had a lesion that might be consistent with anthrax and that is currently being monitored by the medical authorities."
Urged to report sudden stock deaths
Dr Milne said producers needed to be on the lookout for the disease and contact authorities if there were any unexplained stock deaths.
He said symptoms were hard to spot before the animal died but blood may be present around the nose, mouth and anus of carcasses.
"It develops very rapidly and often the first sign is death; that is why when animals die on farms we undertake anthrax testing as a routine," he said.
"That means the risk of anthrax moving off the premises is extremely low because animals will die before there is risk of spreading infection.
"We have on occasion had multi-premises outbreaks but they are usually associated with extremely dry years, which is not the case this year."
Topics: livestock-welfare, veterinary-medicine, infectious-diseases-other, sheep-production, agricultural-policy, quarantine, swan-hill-3585, mildura-3500
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