Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis bacteria. It occurs in both animals and humans and is therefore classified as a zoonosis.
Bacillus (B.) anthracis is a spore-forming, aerobic, gram-positive, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium. Anthrax mainly affects herbivorous animals, but humans can also become infected. Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses are particularly frequently affected, although domestic and wild ruminants are highly susceptible to anthrax. Infection in animals usually occurs through the ingestion of anthrax spores in feed or drinking water. Predatory animals can become infected by eating infected carcasses.
If humans have come into contact with infected animals during outbreaks, the health authorities should be contacted.
The spores of B. anthracis can remain infectious in the soil for decades. Anthrax spores are not destroyed by rotting, drying out or tanning the hides.
The disease is spread worldwide and is most common in Asia (Middle and Far East, India), Africa and South America; in Europe, the Mediterranean region and Eastern Europe are most affected.
In Germany, anthrax only occurs sporadically. The disease mainly affects herds in river valleys that are exposed to frequent flooding. The disease has declined considerably in Germany in recent decades because diseased animals are disposed of in rendering plants, the import of animal hides and bones is monitored and the import of bone meal, meat meal and carcass meal are prohibited.
Anthrax is a notifiable animal disease.
- Supporting the testing facilities of the federal states in outbreak situations
- Clarification of unclear findings
- Development and updating of methodological recommendations for laboratory diagnostics (TSN collection of methods)
- Provision of reference materials
- Provision of comparative laboratory samples
- Recording of all anthrax outbreaks in Germany, their epidemiological processing and publication in the annual animal health report
Attention: Targeted activities with material potentially containing B. anthracis are subject to authorization and may only be carried out in a laboratory of safety level 3.
After isolation, the identification of B. anthracis is based on the parallel amplification of specific sequence segments of different coding regions on the plasmid pX01 (cya gene; anthrax toxin component), on the plasmid pX02 (capB gene, component necessary for polyglutamate synthesis) as well as on the bacterial chromosome (prophage lambdaBa03-PL3). A bioinformatic analysis of the whole genome sequences of outbreak isolates enables the identification of sources of infection.
- Optimization of cultivation from complex materials
- Development and further optimization of molecular biological methods for pathogen detection
- Sequence-based identification and analysis of B. anthracis in complex sample materials
- Maintaining a strain collection of molecular genetically typed isolates
For diagnostic requirements, prior consultation with the laboratory is requested.
Anthrax in Humans and Animals. 4th ed. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2008. ISBN: 978-92-4-154753-6.
RKI-Ratgeber Milzbrand (Anthrax). Berlin: Robert Koch-Institut; Stand: 14.10.2013. URL: Ratgeber_Anthrax