There is still no palpable fear in Nandol village of Gandhinagar district,officially declared as Anthrax-hit this week. Unaware of the fatal nature of the blight,the residents sit and watch veterinarians in protective gear going around vaccinating their animals. The outbreak was first noticed in the last week of May after a number of cattle belonging to Govind Bharwad started dying. On May 30,veterinarians from the Animal Husbandry Department conducted a test on four carcasses and confirmed Anthrax. Soon,the Gujarat Government declared Nandol an Anthrax-hit zone,and teams of veterinarians and para-veterinarians were sent to vaccinate all livestock. By Thursday,some 1,700 animalsgoats,horses,sheep and cattlehad received the vaccines. But with vets hard to come by,the authorities have now deployed some allopathic doctors from nearby health centres to help vaccinate the cattle. Yet,even basic precautions are being overlooked. Carcasses of 23 heads of cattle which have died so far were casually buried in a single pit instead of being burnt. Bharwad says the medical personnel present did not suggest that he should burn the carcasses. Dr K D Trivedi,veterinary officer at Dehgum taluka,knows Anthrax spores can survive in the soil for more than 40 years and spread to humans,but conceded that his own staff supervised the burial. This despite other veterinarians suggesting that the Anthrax outbreak this time was likely to have come from dug-up soil which could have contained spores. Dr Leena Goswami,a medical officer from the nearby Sanoda PHC,said although a large number of animals had showed possible symptoms of the disease,tests had come out negative. But her colleague Dr Jayesh Shah assured that there has been no human infection. Nine villagers who were thought to have consumed milk from affected animals tested negative for the disease,he said. This is not the first time Anthrax has struck Gujarat. Last June,a cow died from the disease in Bhavnagar and the area was declared Anthrax-hit with more than a thousand animals being vaccinated.
