Bovine anthrax confirmed in Split-Dalmatia County

Eleven days after cattle farmers in near Vrlika in Split-Dalmatia County first began reporting the sudden deaths of otherwise healthy cattle, the relevant authorities confirmed that a sample taken from one of the dead cattle was found to be infected with anthrax. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture David Vlajčić said farmers and the public in general were notified immediately. "Given that we only had one positive finding, at this time we cannot categorically claim that all of the cattle died from anthrax poisoning," warned the minister.

Vlajčić added that some forty cattle carcasses had been incinerated and the process of vaccinating the remaining cattle population in the region would begin shortly.

"At the beginning of next week, the vaccine will be distributed to veterinarians in the field. As soon as we have collected all of the epidemiological information from the State Inspectorate, the ministry will declare the so-called anthrax-district. Epidemiologists from the Croatian institute for Public Health will apply preventive measures for farmers and anyone else who was in contact with the cattle," he said.

Minister Vlajčić openly declared the situation to be a crisis, and noted that an analysis of the initial response by the relevant services could not be avoided given that in their first analyses no indication of an infection had been detected. The director of the Croatian Veterinary Institute, Andrea Humski, noted that the first samples did not indicate a viral or bacterial infection.

Given that anthrax is also dangerous to humans, everyone who has been in contact with the infected cattle must be on a preventive regiment of antibiotics for the next ten days.

Minister Vlajčić confirmed that the state would help compensate farmers for their losses.

Farmers however, do not believe that anthrax is the cause of the sudden death of their cattle and are calling for an analysis to be conducted by an independent laboratory. Their concern stems from the fact that only one cow was confirmed to have anthrax, which does not explain why the rest died.

"At first, the minister confirmed that it wasn't an infectious disease, now anthrax has been confirmed. We doubt that because the symptoms for anthrax are not the same as we've seen with our cattle. The first fifteen samples were negative, then all of a sudden the sixteenth one came up positive. So, we have our doubts about all of this and we don't believe anyone," said local cattle rancher Marko Alduk.

"Something doesn't add up," added fellow rancher Jure Turudić.

"Anthrax is contagious, which means that the calves would have contracted anthrax as well. However, of the sixty-odd calves on my farm not one of them has died. So, this isn't anthrax," he said.

Many ranchers noted that they did not receive any official communication about the anthrax infection, but rather found out through the media.