How do animals get anthrax?
The disease affects domestic animals – such as cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, pigs and dogs – as well as wild ruminants such as antelopes, gazelles and impalas. Even elephants and hippopotami are reported to have died from the disease in outbreaks in some parts of Africa. Wild carnivores such as lions, hyenas and jackals, are also susceptible. Birds, however, seem to be resistant to anthrax. Outbreaks of anthrax tend to occur in association with particular climatic and weather events, such as heavy rainfall, flooding and drought. In anthrax-prone areas, the close grazing of animals on fresh shoots of grass after rainfall often leads to outbreaks of the disease due to the ingestion of organisms picked from contaminated soils. During severe outbreaks, biting flies may transmit the disease from one animal to another but this is a very minor mode of transmission. The principal mode of transmission is ingestion of infective micro-organisms. Non-biting blowflies may contaminate veget