I see where a goat was tested positive in Kinney Co. First case this year.

Been a wet year.

Right time of the year and the rains hit at the right time also to connect to the two. I was thinking back in May when it started to rain in those areas it might start up around July 4th or so. If it is getting dry after a good wet spell this time of the year it is going to show up.

should be interesting. never had outbreaks that I'm aware of on our Edwards county place.

In 1975, during my senior year in vet school, the Texas weather situation was similar to this year. There was a big outbreak of Anthrax that year with most of the cases centered around the SW Hill Country (Rock Springs) and Falls County (Chilton up to Mart).

The Anthrax outbreak, along with widespread rumors of unknown cults mutilating cattle and sheep, provided the most excitement for us that year.

There was a really bad outbreak north of Bracketville in '86 (? year, I think). I had a friend who had just bought a place and went up around this time of the year and found a lot of dead deer. I know of a ranch just southwest of Carta Valley that lost almost every deer that same year. and it was 8,000+ acres in size.
I knew the guy managing the 8,000+ acre ranch from the 90's till early 2000's. There were a couple of outbreaks during that time frame. He had been doing his own personal research work during that time with an oral vaccination program and burning of every carcass on the ranch he would find. He was friends with Dr. Don Davis at A&M and kept in touch with him about what he was doing during the whole time period. His records showed that even in huge out-break years his losses were the same or even a bit less than his average year. He had a routine he did to take care of burning the carcass and cleansing of area around where he burned the carcass. He had come up with a method of adding the oral vaccine to the outside of deer pellets to feed the dosage monthly to the deer herd. Before the ranch sold he wrote a paper on his results and records he had.

Hope we don't start seeing more of it pop up.

Carta Valley is the capitol of Anthrax most years. I have seen ranches where almost every deer was killed and it seems that the mature deer are the first to go. Ranches within a 50 mile radius can have problems. Not sure how much it has rained down there but drought conditions make the situation worse.
Adios,
Gary

Heading to the area tomorrow. Hope that we don't find an outbreak.

It's not a circular area, it's a triangle, Uvalde, Ozona, and Eagle Pass, it's also known as the, Anthrax Endemic Zone, cases occur most years with periodic outbreaks, let's hope it's not an outbreak.

Hunted South of Ozona 3k acres of 30k ranch for 11 years. Had it 3 times while on the ranch. Rancher lost 3/4 of cattle and almost all his sheep the last time. The deer heard was all but gone due to it.

You will know it when it hits

There won't be a bad outbreak this year. The most important vector is not in place.

And what is the most important vector sir.

Which is?

It's my painful experience that a quick hot dry up after a wet spell are just 2 of the big requirements for a bad outbreak. I have a lot of hands on experience with it (I fed many tons of antibiotic laced feed too).

But what I learned by observation was that while you have some anthrax almost every year in the "hot" zones, it's never real bad unless it's accompanied by a big population spike of bloodsucking flies. In 2000 (my worst year ever), deer flies and most of all horse flies were thick as fleas.

While one or a few bites probably won't transmit it, if an animal is constantly getting bit like deer and livestock are, theyre gonna be prone to being infected if anthrax spores are blooming and infecting a few host animals that have been bit by those same flies.

Unless I just haven't seen it (I don't have ranches in the hot zones anymore), there hasn't been a lot of deer and horse flies this year. I have places south, north, and east of that area and haven't seen abnormally high fly numbers on any of those places.

Sooner or later you probably will unless you are really east of rock springs. Campwood, and carta valley (as some have said) can have some really bad years and it reaches to rock springs from the west and south.

Interesting. I hope you're right. I'd hate to see such a wet year wasted with anthrax.

I may be wrong, but that's my experience. That said, unless I start seeing a big spike in blood suckers, I'd be willing to bet a lot of cash that we'll only hear about a few isolated cases.

It doesn't affect Texas but North Dakota reported an anthrax case. Possibly tight vaccine supplies would be a concern.

therancher - I beleive you're right this year. The conditions have not been right for an outbreak. It's been 3 weeks since our last good rain with mild increases in temps (mid to low 90's with nights still getting into the hi 60's). Vegitation is lush but beginning to show sign of water needs, but I believe it's more from the high winds. Plus there has been a low fly pop. What is concerning me is the very hi tick pop this year. Our 10 section ranch is across the fence from one that has a reported history of anthrax, but no outbreaks in the last several years.

Anthrax is NOT transmitted by insect bites. It is only transmitted by wound inoculation/direct contact with an infected animal, or inhalation of spores.

You missed Ranchers point! When there are high numbers of biting flies, there are high numbers of wound sites, that can get inoculated. The combination of high spore counts with a high number of wound sites increases the rate of transmission. Once you start having animals infected they shed spores increasing the spore count. it builds upon itself, take out the high number of wound sites, you greatly reduce the transmission rate.

Biting flies are what my friends watched for also. Biting flies can transmit the disease from one animal to another on severe outbreaks it not the mode most likely for it. Also non-biting blow-flies feeding dead carcasses can contaminate vegetation around dead a carcass allowing other animals to feed on on the vegetation is far more likely. My buddy used to burn the carcass on the site and then spray the area of vegetation around the site so animals would not eat it.

Inoculation in open wounds is a very minor route of anthrax infection. Far more commonly, the bacillus enters the body through inhalation or ingestion. It can also enter the body through intact undamaged skin.

Flies aren't a specific vector of anthrax, but they can physically acquire the spores from walking and feeding on an infected animal. Then they can alight on a healthy animal and mechanically transmit the spores. And we think that very often, flies with spores on them can deposit the spores on blades of grass. And when cattle eat the grass, they get anthrax.

It is possible that the same weather conditions that favor an anthrax outbreak--a rainy warm spell followed by a dry period--may also cause a fly explosion, but I don't think there is a direct cause-effect relationship between flies and anthrax.

You may recall the domestic terrorist events lately where crazies have sent packages of anthrax spores in envelopes to politicians and judges. A few mail sorters even got sick and died. The spores entered the body via inhalation or ingestion.

It's hard to predict or explain when or where an anthrax outbreak will occur. Like Godzilla who sleeps for decades only to wake up and destroy a couple cities, anthrax spores remain dormant for years or centuries, only to suddenly erupt and cause havoc. Then just as quickly, the bacterium goes dormant again.

We're only three or four miles down 674 from where it intersects with 377. As the crow flies, probably five miles SW of Rocksprings. Guess we should really look into treating our protein feed. Where does one get the antibiotics and go about treating feed? And how often is it necessary to feed antibiotic laced pellets to prevent losing animals?