In recent times, Anthrax livestock-killer disease was confirmed in two states, causing panic in the country. In an Interview with MUHAMMAD TANKO SHITTU, the executive director, National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) Vom, Dr Maryam Muhammad said there is no cause for panic as the institute is producing quality vaccine against the disease.
Please doctor, what really is Anthrax?
Anthrax is a disease that affects cloven footed animals like cows, sheep, goats, pigs, etc; however, the disease can jump from the animal population into the human population. It is one of the diseases referred to as zoonotic disease because it affects both animals and humans. It is a bacterial disease that occurs when cloven footed animals eat vegetative grass where the spurs of this organism have formed into a deadly organism.
Usually Anthrax can remain in soil for a very long time like 10 to 20 years, but with heavy downpour or when flooding takes place, it exposes the disease to the detriment of those classes of animal. What predisposes Anthrax is flooding because the spurs of the organism are deep in the soil, but when there is a lot of rain and there is flooding as we have had this season, the tendancy is that the top soil would be washed away and once those spurs are exposed to moistures and air, they shed what is called a capsule that is protective around the organism. That is when they become infections and deadly to especially animals.
How can Anthrax be prevented?
The prevention of Anthrax is by high-vaccination. The National Veterinary Research Institute, produces the Anthrax spore vaccine and usually we advise that farmers and livestock owners vaccinate against Anthrax on a yearly basis; however, when there is an outbreak of the disease a different tag is taken. For now, annual vaccination is the best prevention of this disease. The major way to prevent Anthrax is to make sure that it is reported to the animal health professionals. Once there is suspicion about Anthrax, that animal would not be opened. The disease is locally known by livestock owners as, ‘Saifa’ (disease of the pancrease). We often tell them that if they suspect any animal has ‘Saifa’, there is no need to open it, but take a little sample of the blood on a cotton straw and send it to us so that we can confirm if it is Anthrax.
What are the signs or symptoms of Anthrax in animals?
Actually, there is no carrier with Anthrax. What happens is that you can wake up in the morning and find out that your animals are dead. Sometimes, you see animals grazing within two or three hours you come back and the animals have dropped dead, that is a classic case of Anthrax. When that happens, it is referred to as pacute case. In some cases, it might not be pacute, but could take up to 20 days from when the animals are exposed to the disease before you begin to see signs. Some of the signs are you may see the animal bleeding from all openings like the nose, particularly from the eye, and from the innal regionlike, you find out that blood is oozing out. In the instance case, the institute advises livestock owners to take a small sample of the blood and forward it to the NVRI laboratory and we will be able to use it to make confirmatory diagnoses of Anthrax.
How does Anthrax spread to humans?
The mode of Anthrax spread to humans is when animals that have died with Anthrax are handled by humans. Usually, it is the frontline animals health workers, butchers who process the animals, the farmers who are keeping the animals are the group of people that are the first line of infection to Anthrax, when a dead or a sick animal is not properly handled. In humans, what you see is referred to as a kettinos form, especially because of the way we handle the animals when we slaughter or when we are processing them. You find that there are lesions around the hands. In 95 percent of the cases, we suspect that it is probably Anthrax, and we refer them to the hospital for treatment. In some rare cases, Anthrax can jump and become septicemic; for example, if a butcher gets a cut in his hand and is handling a case of Anthrax; it goes into the wound and goes into the blood stream. In the process, it becomes septicemic, but in most cases, that doesn’t happen. In some cases we have the Anthrax that comes through the nose. This is very common among leather workers as they process the skin. It could easily go into their lungs and becomes a problem, but there is no need for alarm as the disease is limited to the skin; that can be treated with antibiotics.
What role does NVRI plays in the control of Anthrax?
As national laboratory, our roles are surveillance, diagnoses and production. We provide confirmatory diagnoses of any animal disease including Anthrax. There are two confirmed cases from Niger state which was the index case and we also have confirmation for Lagos state. We gave Plateau state negative because we tested samples that came from the abattoir in Jos and found them negative for Anthrax for now. The second role that we play is in surveillance. We have 23 laboratories scattered across this country and from time-to-time, we take samples to those laboratories so that they can check and see whether there is disease; for example, when cows are moved from the north to the south, we carry out this check. The third role is that we produce the Anthrax spore vaccine, which is used for the control of Anthrax. Now we are part of the Emergency Control Centre, set up by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, domicile in the Department of Veterinary and Pest Control. We provide to them a vaccine to do what is referred to as risk based vaccination. We have sent 50,000 doses of the Anthrax spore vaccine to Niger state and I know they have started vaccinating the herds that are around that index case where its occurred. The institute produces 19 array of vaccines for both animals and poultry for the cure and prevention of diseases.
What is the institute doing to eliminate quackery in vaccines production?
We have heard that people are now doing some concoctions, claiming that they are from NVRI. So I will like to draw the attention of especially, our livestock farmers, who would like to vaccinate their animals, that they should come to VOM or our designated laboratories across the country. We also have our few distributors who are veterinarians and pharmaceutical companies. We know will carry our vaccines and distribute them properly.
What are some of the institute’s challenges as we move forward?
Well, in every system, there are always some challenges. The institute will be 100 years in 2024; of course, it is old. Some of the facilities are aging too. The livestock population is increasing; for the last 100 years, we’ve seen exponation growth in the total livestock population. So, what we need to do is not to talk about the problems, we see it as opportunities, but how to overcome the challenges. This is for us to be able to scale up the vaccine productions so that we can make it available all over the country and to the West African subregion and to make sure that our laboratories are ungraded to international standards so that we can do the surveillance and diagnostic work that is expected and also to raise the generation of next crop of researchers that would continue with the work that the institute is known for.
