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SALISBURY MEDICAL BULLETIN - SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT NO. 87 Table 2. Environmental specimens examined in the Anthrax Section, CAMR, during the period, October 1987 to August 1995', Number of sites Type of site Number AV Bone processing 1 soil dust bone chips/charcoal bonemeal Tanneries 18 Building materials 18 (“horsehair plaster”) Burial sites 13 Abattoirs 7 Laboratory/hospital 6 Sewage treatment works 5 Other (fellmongers, 6 Government Disinfection Station, manure etc) Not known 6 TOTALS 96 Number of samples Number AV 0 55 ‘Modified from Table 1 in Turnbull (1996)*; reproduced by kind permission of the Editor and Publisher of Land Contamination and Reclamation *From one site. V, virulent; A, avirulent (cap”) References Breathnach AS, Turnbull PCB, Eykyn SJ, Twort CHC. A labourer with a spot on his chest. Lancet 1996; 347: 96. Edginton AB. An outbreak of anthrax in pigs: a practitioner’s account. Vet Rec 1990; 127: 321-4. Bowen JE, Turnbull PCB, Mann JW. Stubborn contamination with anthrax spores. Environmental Health Journal; 1996; 104, in press. Ide CW. A spot of bother: a report of a case and a review of human anthrax in the UK 1970-91. Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health in Scotland Weekly Report 1992; 26, No 92/21, pp 4-6. Redmond C, Hall GA, Green M, Turnbull PCB. Bacteriology, serology and pathology of experimental anthrax in pigs. These proceedings, pp 80-82. Anthrax in Russia B. CHERKASSKIY *—Ds. being contaminated with anthrax spores. Land Contamination and Reclamation 1996; 4: 37-45. Turnbull PCB, Hutson RA, Ward MJ, Jones MN, Quinn CP, Finnie NJ, Duggleby CJ, Kramer JM, Melling J. Bacillus anthracis but not always anthrax. J Appl Bacteriol 1992; 72: 21-6. Turnbull PCB, Stuart FA, Barrett NJ, Melling J. Anthrax in the UK. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Anthrax, 11-13 April 1989, Winchester, UK. Salisbury Med Bull No 68, Special suppl; 1990, pp 4-5. Williams DR, Rees GB, Rogers ME. Observations on an outbreak of anthrax in pigs in north Wales. Vet Rec 1992; 131: 363-6. Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, 111123 Novogiveyersdaya str 3-a, Russia, Moscow Anthrax has been a serious problem for veterinary and public health in the former USSR. Even in the beginning of the twentieth century on the territory of the former USSR about 40-60 thousand anthrax cases were registered in animals and 10-20 thousand cases in humans annually. The case fatality rate was 25%. According to the official data, an average of 1200 cases of livestock anthrax were reported between 1971 and 1980 annually; the annual number of cases had fluctuated from 2750 cases in 1971 to 553 in 1980. An average of 440 cases of anthrax in human beings were registered annually; the annual number of cases had fluctuated from 658 in 1971 to 292 in 1980. The level of morbidity per 100,000 in animals averaged 0.36 and, in humans 0.17. | During the following decade, the level of morbidity in animals as well as in humans decreased; between 1981 and 1990 an average of 453 cases of anthrax of livestock had been registered annually; the annual number of cases had fluctuated from 1177 in 1981 to 181 in 1985. An average of 230 cases of anthrax in humans had been observed annually from 268 in 1983 to 176 in 1989. The average levels of morbidity per 100,000 were 0.16 in animals and 0.8 in humans, The level of anthrax morbidity was usually highest in Kazakhstan and the republics of Central Asia. For example in 1986-1990, about 50% of all registered cases in the former USSR were in Tadjikistan and 12% in Kazakhstan. The total number of cases just in Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Aserbaijan constituted 85% of all cases in the USSR. Russia accounted for only 11% of all cases, 50% of which were registered in the territory of North Caucasus. During these years, the incidence rate per 100,000 population in Tadjikistan was 17- fold higher than in the USSR on average, in Turkmenistan, 5-fold and in Kazakhstan, 3- to 5 4- fold. According to the official data an average of 94 cases of anthrax in humans were registered annually in Russia between 1971 and 1980. The annual number of cases had fluctuated from a peak of 151 in 1972 to a minimum of 46 in 1973. The level of morbidity per 100,000 population was 0.06 an average and fluctuated from 0.11 to 0.04. Turnbull PCB. Guidance on environments known to be or suspected of a | t