Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic lower vertebrates (cattle, sheep, goats, camels, antelopes, and other herbivores), but it can also occur in humans when they are exposed to infected animals or tissue from infected animals.
Anthrax is most common in agricultural regions where it occurs in animals. These include South and Central America, Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. When anthrax affects humans, it is usually due to an occupational exposure to infected animals or their products. Workers who are exposed to dead animals and animal products from other countries where anthrax is more common may become infected with B. anthracis (industrial anthrax). Anthrax outbreaks occur in the United States on an annual basis in livestock and wild game animals such as deer.
Anthrax infection can occur in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. B. anthracis spores can live in the soil for many years, and humans can become infected with anthrax by handling products from infected animals or by inhaling anthrax spores from contaminated animal products. Anthrax can also be spread by eating undercooked meat from infected animals. It is rare to find infected animals in the United States.
Shine a laser on a drop of blood, mucus, or wastewater, and the light reflecting back can be used to positively identify bacteria in the sample.
Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain caused by damage to the nervous system due mainly to metabolic diseases such as diabetes and arthritis, or to the side effects of some kinds of chemotherapy.
Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Zoonoses are infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans and/or from humans to animals.
What our work shows is how a complex in the center of the cell, the ER-Golgi interaction region, controls plasma membrane cholesterol, which is essential for many cellular functions, if not essential for multicellular life.
A recent study discusses the use of commensal bacteria in the gut and/or respiratory tract to deliver viral antigens to the host, thus acting as vaccines
Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Bovine brucellosis is endemic and widely distributed in Ethiopia.
Working with tiny bacteria, Michigan State University researchers led by Lee Kroos have made a discovery that could have big implications for biology.
A new study estimates the potential relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders.
In a recent study published in the journal Science, researchers observed differential effector functions of antibodies elicited by Pfizer’s BNT162b2 and Moderna’s messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-1273 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines.
Furin inhibitors as potential therapeutics for treating COVID-19 and other diseases, wherein furin is integral for their pathogenicity and progression.
In new research, scientists from the Beijing University of Technology have been investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and mortality of zoonotic diseases in China. Their work is published in the journal BMJ Global Health.
Researchers investigate the SARS-CoV-2 exposure and infection status of captive white-tailed deer in Texas.
Complex risks to human health and wellbeing have been neglected by governments and NGOs because of a failure appreciate the complex nature of environmental risks, a new report warns.
Anthrax has a scary reputation. Widely known to cause serious lung infections in humans and unsightly, albeit painless, skin lesions in livestock and people, the anthrax bacterium has even been used as a weapon of terror.
New research from the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine has revealed how humans evolved greater resistance against anthrax multiple times during history: when they developed a diet of more ruminants, and when agricultural practices took hold.
In this interview, we spoke to Warren Mino at Smiths Detection, about their innovative technology and its involvement within biothreat detection.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a grant to develop the next generation of personal protective equipment (PPE) for combat troops.
To enhance the early detection of novel infectious bacteria that could cause outbreaks of infectious disease and public health emergencies, a team of researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences will sequence the genomes of 700 Bacilli bacteria -; near relatives of the biothreat pathogen that causes anthrax.
Angela Marie Wulbrecht jumped at the first chance to get a covid-19 vaccine, driving three hours from her Santa Rosa, California, home to a mass-vaccination site on Jan. 19.
Inoculation with live attenuated vaccines (LAV) such as those used against TB, polio or measles can stimulate the immune system to provide protection against other infectious diseases, including COVID-19, says a new study.