Here is why you need to more wary of anthrax during this festive season

Diced meat with rosemary herb and garlic (Photo: Courtesy)

The festive season is here with us and it comes with an appetite for nyama choma feasts. During such festive seasons when meat is on demand, illegal home slaughter of animals is common.

Last week in Bomet County a whole village fell ill after consuming poisonous uninspected meat.  A ‘philanthropic’ neighbour slaughtered ‘a dead cow’ and called villagers for a feast.

According to the farmer, the animal died suddenly without any marked clinical signs and so they assumed it was safe for consumption. This is not the first time such incidences are being reported.

Inspected meat

According to Kenyan laws only healthy livestock should be slaughtered, in a designated abattoir and must be subject to ante and post mortem inspection by an officer authorised by the Director of Veterinary Services.

It is an offence under the Cruelty to Animals Act Cap 360 to slaughter an animal in a cruel manner as is likely in most illegal home slaughters. Further it is an offence to be in possession of an uninspected animal carcass according to the Meat Control Act.

These regulations shouldn’t only be viewed from a legal perspective but most importantly from a human health mind-set. Meat can be easily contaminated either from an internal biological organism like in the case of diseases and from environment when not handled safely. For this reason the Meat Control Act spells our how meat should be transported.

Ante mortem inspection ensures the animal is fit for human consumption based on certain parameters and tests. Here any animal with the 4 Ds- Down, Disabled, Diseases or Dead isn’t fit for human consumption — labelled condemned and immediately disposed off.

To further ensure food safety, postmortem examination of the carcass is done and if it passes this, a colour stamp is imprinted on the carcass.

The sad thing is illegal home slaughters don’t follow this safety measures. Many farmers want to quickly slaughter a sick animal and sell to a butcher to avoid incurring losses.

With this sad state of affairs, what is the way forward?

Never slaughter a sick animal, or never slaughter animals at home. Sick animals should be treated by your veterinary doctor. An animal found dead must be examined by a veterinary doctor to ascertain the cause of death.

Anthrax is a disease to look out for; because it is zoonotic meaning it can be spread across man and animals. Anthrax is a bacterial disease of all ruminants and man. In ruminants it is characterised by sudden death (an animal can die within two hours of showing clinical signs) sometimes farmers may not even observe the signs and will find the animal dead.  The clinical signs include difficulty breathing, high temperature, collapse and convulsions and sudden death.

Sudden death

Typically, blood in animals that have died of anthrax unlike other diseases doesn’t clot and maybe released from body openings. When an animal health profession suspects anthrax, do not open the carcass for two deadly reasons.

If you do that, you increase chances of infecting yourself and contaminate the environment with the bacterial spores which become potent when exposed to air hence spreading the disease to other animals. Anthrax carcass must be disposed properly supervised by a vet. A premise where an animal has died from anthrax should be quarantined until all the susceptible animals are vaccinated.

The good news is that Anthrax is preventable through vaccination. The vaccine is marketed under the trade name Blanthrax or Bivax marketed by Coopers and Highchem respectively in bottles of 50 doses that combine both anthrax and Blackquarter vaccines. The vaccines are relative cheap and should be given annually.

(The writer is the winner of Vet of the Year Award 2016 and works with the Kenya Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Council –KENTTEC, [email protected])