Sporulation and virulence of Bacillus anthracis in opened and unopened animal carcasses
Toschkoff, A.; Veljanov, D.
Archiv für Experimentelle Veterinarmedizin 24(5): 1153-1160
1970
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9055 PMID: 4997717 Document Number: 26282
In the carcasses of animals which have died from anthrax there is an intense multiplication of the anthrax bacilli and a considerable increase in their virulence during the first few hours after death. In dead guinea-pigs and rabbits the bacilli subsequently sporulate, as a result of conditions unfavourable for further multiplication, and their virulence becomes fixed at the peak achieved earlier. In sheep that have died from anthrax, the bacilli do not sporulate; lysis of the bacilli commences and their virulence diminishes. From the epidemiological aspect there is danger from large domestic animals that have died from anthrax, during the first few hours after death (intense multiplication and increase in virulence of anthrax bacilli). Subsequently this danger diminishes on account of the fall in number of bacilli, their rapid lysis and the decrease in their virulence. This is not the case in small animals that have died from anthrax, in which the bacilli not only multiply intensely and increase in virulence but also, after opening of the carcass, sporulate; hence in addition to intense multiplication and considerable increase in virulence of the bacilli, there is the additional risk of creating a contaminated environment.