The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that a Texas rancher contracted an anthrax infection after butchering a lamb he found dead on his property. The incident dates back to December as the rancher first contacted his doctor about infected skin wounds on New Year’s Day.
CDC researchers said that on Jan. 4, the rancher, a man in his 50s was hospitalized with a high fever, high white blood cell count, fever, “scabrous lesion on his right wrist and a swollen right arm complete with blistered lesions.”
According to the CDC, the rancher found the dead lamb, butchered it, seasoned the meat and cooked it for dinner where four people ate the lamb.
Tests on the rancher’s serum done by the CDC confirmed exposure to the bacteria that causes anthrax. Plus, the CDC found the same bacteria in the DNA of the cooked lamb’s meat, which was tested after being stored frozen.
“The patient and another person seasoned and cooked the meat; the well-cooked meat was then consumed at a meal with three other persons,” investigators with the CDC said, but only the man who butchered the lamb became ill.
That suggests direct contact between the deceased animal and the man’s skin as the mode of transmission. In this case and prior human anthrax cases recorded in the same area of Texas, “the patients reported direct skin exposure to animal carcasses, emphasizing the importance of avoiding processing carcasses of animals that unexpectedly die of unknown causes in this region regardless of the season,” the investigators said.
The rancher recovered from his illness and was discharged Jan. 12. None of the other dinner guests showed symptoms of illness. Even though tests of the leftover cooked and frozen meat did not show up as positive, the CDC says that there is no safe way to prepare meat that died from anthrax.
USNews.com reports the ranch where the lamb was found is near an area called the “Anthrax Triangle.”
