ANIMAL ANTHRAX

Anthrax has been enzootic in Sverdlovskaya oblast since before the 1917 revolution (20). Local officials recalled an outbreak of anthrax among sheep and cattle south of the city in early spring 1979. A detailed report of a commission of veterinarians and local officials describes the epizootic in Abramovo, a village of approximately 100 houses 50 km south-southeast of Compound 19. The report, dated 25 April 1979, records the deaths or forced slaughter of seven sheep and a cow with anthrax that was confirmed by veterinary examination. The first such losses were of two sheep on 5 April, followed by two more on each of the next 2 days, another on 8 April, and a cow on 10 April, all belonging to different private owners. These losses were substantiated by interviews we conducted with owners of six of the sheep that died. Respondents said there had been no human anthrax in the village. During a livestock immunization program started on 10 April, 298 sheep were given anti-anthrax serum or vaccine or both. The attack rate among sheep at Abramovo therefore appears to have been approximately 2%.

In addition, we obtained veterinary reports of bacteriological tests positive for anthrax in samples from three sheep from three farms in the village of Kashino, one sheep from Pervomaisky, and a cow from Rudniy, the earliest samples being received for testing on 6 April. Although other documents cite the forced slaughter of a sheep in Rudniy on 28 March and the death of another in Abramovo on 3 April, the earliest livestock losses for which we have documentation of a diagnosis of anthrax are those in Abramovo on 5 April.

Altogether, Soviet publications (6a, 7a) and the documents we obtained cite outbreaks of anthrax among livestock in six villages: Rudniy, Bolshoye Sedelnikovo, Maloye Sedelnikovo, Pervomaiskiy, Kashmo, and Abramovo. All six villages lie along the extended axis of the high-risk zone of human anthrax (Fig. 3). The centerline of human and livestock cases has a compass bearing of 330 degrees +/- 10 degrees.