BY JULIE SEVRENS LYONS AND GLENNDA CHUI
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Nearly two dozen Santa Clara County (Calif.) cattle have died of anthrax in the past week, an outbreak that health officials are calling a serious -- but not alarming -- case of the livestock disease.
Officials stressed that there is no risk to the general public, although four ranchers who came into direct contact with the infected animals were given antibiotics as a preventive measure. The disease is not contagious, even among the cattle, and there is no indication this is in any way linked to the anthrax scare on the East Coast or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
``We have no reason to believe at this point that this is anything other than a natural exposure'' to anthrax, said Greg Van Wassenhove, Santa Clara County's agricultural commissioner.
County, state and federal agriculture officials, along with the FBI, have all been investigating what is one of the worst anthrax episodes among California livestock in a decade. Twenty-one cows and bulls have died. The sick animals all belonged to the same herd on one ranch, county health officials said. They would not specify the ranch's name or location, saying the information is confidential.
A veterinarian had been called in after the cattle began dying last week, and laboratory tests confirmed they had fallen victim to anthrax, bacteria commonly found in soil.
The cattle were exposed to anthrax spores through ``eating dirt, primarily,'' Van Wassenhove said. At this time of year, when the pastures are brown and parched, ``The stubble is so short out there that cattle are ingesting soil,'' he said.
The only people potentially exposed to the bacteria were those present when the dead cattle were cut open during necropsy, the animal equivalent of a human autopsy. The ranch hands had not been wearing gloves during the procedure, so they were given a 10-day supply of the antibiotic Cipro just in case, said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county's health officer.
Health officials had been concerned that anthrax in the animals' blood could have entered someone's body through a small scratch on the hands, causing cutaneous, or skin, anthrax. But there is no evidence the workers had been infected.
The outbreak is confined to a ranch in the southeastern foothills of the county, and the remaining 120 cattle have all been vaccinated to protect them should they also come in contact with the hardy bacteria, Fenstersheib said.
Given the spate of anthrax cases in humans in recent weeks, the FBI had been called in just as a precaution, said Dr. Richard Breitmeyer, the state's veterinarian and director of Animal Health and Food Safety Services. Local investigators shared the anthrax strain with FBI scientists for typing, to help rule out any possible link to terrorism.
But anthrax has long been found in the state's soil and has periodically caused illness in livestock, Fenstersheib said.
Indeed, since 1926, California has seen 34 anthrax outbreaks in its livestock, including some in Santa Clara County. In one of the worst cases, 43 cattle and 135 sheep died from the disease in 1984 in the Carrisa Plains, an area about an hour's drive east of Atascadero in central California.
But cases are still considered somewhat rare. Since 1991, there have been only 10 known outbreaks of anthrax in California livestock, nine of which occurred in cattle.
The cattle that died last week were buried, along with topsoil that likely contained the bacteria, to prevent additional livestock from coming into contact with the anthrax spores. The remaining members of the herd have been quarantined for 60 days.
Agriculture officials plan to hold a public briefing on the outbreak today.
``If this had happened Sept. 10, there would be no press release,'' said Sharon Hietala, an immunologist with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory in Davis. ``It's just that people are very sensitized to the word `anthrax' now. We wanted to make sure people were aware that this is something we're not hiding.''
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Mrs Kus