anthrax

Disease of livestock, occasionally transmitted to humans, usually via infected hides and fleeces. It may also be used as a weapon in biological warfare. It develops as black skin pustules or severe pneumonia. Treatment is possible with antibiotics, and vaccination is effective.

Anthrax is caused by a bacillus (Bacillus anthracis). In the 17th century, some 60,000 cattle died in a European pandemic known as the Black Bane, thought to have been anthrax. The disease is described by the Roman poet Virgil and may have been the cause of the biblical fifth plague of Egypt.

In October 2001 powder containing weapons-grade anthrax spores was sent in letters to media companies and political institutions in the USA, resulting in five deaths. The attack was initially thought to be linked to the terrorist attacks on 11 September that year in the USA, but the anthrax strain used in the attack turned out to have been developed in US federal laboratories; as of 2006 the issue remained unresolved.