From an MMWR article on the CDC website about several cases of gastrointestinal anthrax in Minnesota in 2000 (from eating meat from a cow that died of anthrax): "Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium B. anthracis. Human disease usually occurs through cutaneous exposure to infected animal tissue or products. Rarely, inhalation or ingestion of B. anthracis spores also leads to anthrax. In the United States during the early part of the 20th century, approximately 130 human cases occurred annually (1); two cutaneous infections have been reported since 1992. Before this exposure, no animal anthrax cases had been reported in northern Minnesota since recordkeeping began in 1909. However, in adjacent areas of North Dakota during 2000, 120--150 cattle have died of anthrax (L. Schuler, North Dakota state veterinarian, personal communication, 2000), and 11 farms have reported anthrax-related cattle deaths in nearby Manitoba, Canada (Figure 1) (J.G. Spearman, Manitoba Department of Agriculture, personal communication, 2000)." Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html