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Sixteen Manitoba farms have tested positive for anthrax

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
- An outbreak of anthrax north of Winnipeg has killed more than 50 farm animals since mid-July, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday.

Sixteen Manitoba farms have tested positive for anthrax in the last few weeks. The fatal virus has killed 48 cattle, one horse and two goats, said Dr. Sandra Stephens, a disease control specialist.

Unlike in recent years, Stephens said this year's cases have been farther north and concentrated in the Interlake region north of Winnipeg - an area that hasn't been affected in more than three decades. Most of Manitoba's past outbreaks have been just outside Winnipeg or in southeastern Manitoba.

So far, the Rural Municipality of Rockwood - 45 kilometres north of Winnipeg, and Armstrong, 100 kilometres north of the city - have had the majority of cases. One case of anthrax was reported in May in Stuartburn, southeast of the capital.

"Certainly we see that the spores can survive for decades -some estimated at 200 years or more," Stephens said. "It could've been last year, or 20 to 30 years ago, that an animal died and spread the spores."

Anthrax is a fatal virus spread by spores that live in soil. Although they can lie dormant for years, the spores thrive after heavy rain or flooding, followed by drought and hot temperatures.

Stephens said rain brings the anthrax spores to the surface and, as the soil dries, they're left to be ingested by grazing farm animals.

Infected animals can die within a few hours as the bacteria multiply in the bloodstream, release toxins and cause internal bleeding.

Human cases of anthrax are rare, but people can get it by eating meat from infected animals, by contracting the spores through open cuts or wounds, or by inhaling airborne spores.

Stephens said any farm that tests positive for anthrax is quarantined and all surviving animals are vaccinated.

Any corpses from infected animals are either incinerated or buried deep in the soil.

Farmers in the surrounding areas are busy vaccinating their animals to prevent an outbreak.

"People are rounding up the animals off the pasture and vaccinating them," she said.

Many cattle producers are concerned, since the virus seems to be spreading into areas that have never had a problem with the spores, said Martin Unrau, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association.

Vaccinating herds is time-consuming and stressful, and producers need to be vigilant in making certain that none of their animals is sick, he added.

"It's a lot of work, plus the added stress of cleaning up dead animals," Unrau said.

Last year, 17 farms in Manitoba were hit with anthrax and 118 animals died.

Four cattle have been killed by anthrax this year on farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Stephens said more cases are possible if hot, dry temperatures persist.

Most cases of anthrax occur in late August and September.

© CanWest News Service 2007
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Anthrax is one of the most manipulated (human manipulated) bacterium on the Planet. There are some good articles on Wikipedia.

The military history of using anthrax, or planning to use anthrax, as a biological weapon is frightening. Suffield military base in Alberta is one location were this type of biological "research" is being done.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_Military_To_Buy_Anthrax_And_Bioweapons_Production_Systems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrax some interesting pictures here at this link.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Since Anthrax lives in soil for very long periods of time, and flooding or extreme drought can bring it to the surface, it seems unlikely we will eradicate it anytime soon.

Kathy, is Canada or the USA, Great Brittain, using it or planning to use it as a biological weapon.........or are they studying it to learn how to counter the use of Anthrax by an enemy. There is a vast difference, IMO.

MRJ
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Consider history. Wikipedia:

Anthrax spores can and have been used as a biological warfare weapon. There is a long history of bioweapons research in this area. For example, in 1942 British bioweapons trials severely contaminated Gruinard Island in Scotland with anthrax spores of the Vollum-14578 strain, thereby rendering it uninhabitable for the following 48 years.[11] The Gruinard trials involved testing the effectiveness of a submunition of an "N-bomb"—a biological weapon. Additionally, five million "cattle cakes" impregnated with anthrax were prepared and stored in Porton Down for attacks on Germany by the Royal Air Force as an anti-livestock weapon. [citation needed] However neither the cakes nor the bomb were ever used .

The production of vaccines can quickly be turned into the production of weapons.

With depleted uranium weapons, who needs anthrax.

It would be nieve to think that a military research project utilizing anthrax is just looking at creating vaccines to protect our troops.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
Canada had a biological warfare research program in the early to middle part of the 20th century. Canadian research involved developing protections against biowarfare attacks and[citation needed] for offensive purposes, often with the help of the UK and the US. Canada has thus experimented with such things as weaponized anthrax, botulinum toxin, ricin, rinderpest virus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, plague, Brucellosis and tularemia. CFB Suffield is the leading research centre. Canada claims to have destroyed all military stockpiles and to no longer conduct toxin warfare research. Canada ratified the Biological Weapons Convention on September 18, 1972.

- this is not what we are hearing from people stationed at Suffield. Reports have been passed on to me, that "if Canadians knew what they were doing at Suffield, they would shut it down", and, "you can be sure what we are doing at Suffield does not bode well for man-kind".

Considering that on google earth, when you look at Suffield from the satelite systems, there is a large bull's eye formed by 4 ring-roads, the only need for such a grid is to measure wind drift of "whatever" they have released from the center.

While our Canadian government and troops may not be directly involved with research that is forbidden (this is their claim), that does not mean that visiting military from USA, UK or Austrialia follow by the same rules.

Why would Canada ban depleted uranium weapons, but continue to sell uranium to foreign countries to use as they will. How do you prove that the WMD used by other countries isn't Canadian? Some report that as much as one half of the uranium used in DU weapons around the world, comes from Canada.

Anthrax may, or may not, be used to coverup BSE and CWD. It looks awful suspicious when CFIA tests brain samples for Anthrax before they test them for TSEs.

The vaccine for anthrax was switched also. It used to be an "encapsulated" version, now it is a "non-encapsulated" version. Even the CFIA official from Saskatchewan (whom I talked to last year) didn't know this. He could not answer my question appropriately at that time, ie: will animals vaccinated with the non-encapsulated anthrax vaccine show-up positive on a quick "antigen-based" anthrax test?

It appears as though the answer is "Yes". Thus all cattle, sheep and goats preventatively vaccinated for anthrax, will test positive when their "brain samples" are sent for BSE or CWD testing. No further testing is then performed for TSEs. Case Closed!

Who changed the protocol?
 

Kato

Well-known member
Maybe they test for anthrax first because of the risk of lab technicians contracting the disease. :shock: :shock: It has happened in the past. Contact with infected tissue can be a source of the disease. That's why animals that die of it are burned where they die. Even opening one up for a post mortem will allow spores to spread.

The spores remain active for many years. Some outbreaks have been blamed on spores left deep in the soil many years ago by bison. That's how tough the spores are.

No one wants to fool with this stuff in a lab. :!:
 

Kathy

Well-known member
This is very true. Is it however, more "infectious" than BSE? (I say this with general disgust for the word infectious). Contamination with radionuclides is a toxin.

These are Level III labs working on this stuff. Cross contamination of equipment with anthrax should not be an issue. Sterilization procedures are quite simple for anthrax, and reportedly these steps would not affect the bad prion.

The fact remains, that animals in areas where no anthrax has been found are being tested for anthrax... they are testing brain tissue samples with a minute amount of blood. Normally a blood sample is examined for spores. New rapid tests only look for "reactions".

The protocols at these labs are set up for dealing with highly infectious agents. If they are worried about cross-contaminating equipment, then the TSE lab should have one special machine designated for the anthrax positive cases (which will be increasing in numbers as more animals are vaccinated with the non-encapsulated vaccine). I know for a fact, that several horses vaccinated for anthrax died because of the vaccine.

Between 1999 and 2005 (7 years) Saskatchewan had 5 cases of anthrax. In 2006, Saskatchewan had 134, in cattle. There were plenty of dry then wet then dry periods in those 7 years. People should be asking questions as to why the change in vaccine and why not further examine the anthrax positive samples for BSE - especially in a Level III lab (located in Lethbridge, Alberta).
 

andybob

Well-known member
Kathy said:
Anthrax is one of the most manipulated (human manipulated) bacterium on the Planet. There are some good articles on Wikipedia.

The military history of using anthrax, or planning to use anthrax, as a biological weapon is frightening. Suffield military base in Alberta is one location were this type of biological "research" is being done.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_Military_To_Buy_Anthrax_And_Bioweapons_Production_Systems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrax some interesting pictures here at this link.

One persistant piece of disinformation on the second link, Anthrax was never used as a weapon in the Rhodesian war, the outbreak in the south of the country was the normal endemic strain and was quickly contained, despite efforts by the terrorists to attack government veterinary and medical staff involved in the containment program.
 

Kathy

Well-known member
What is true here is that whether naturally occurring or man-made, even "normal" strains can be grown in a lab and released into the environment.

143 cases of anthrax in one year versus 5 in the last 7, Saskatchewan.
 
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