The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) announced today that ranches in Sutton County have laboratory-confirmed cases of anthrax in horses, deer, and cattle. Laboratory results are pending for several other sites in the county, where livestock and deer losses have been reported. Although this bacterial disease occurs almost yearly in this region of the state, cases have not been confirmed within Sutton County for more than 20 years. Typically, outbreaks are in Val Verde, Edwards, Kinney, and Uvalde counties, but on rare occasions, cases have been confirmed as far south as Starr County, reports Thurman Fancher, DVM, director for Area 6 (West Texas) of the TAHC.

“Anthrax is under-reported, because many ranchers in this area automatically dispose of carcasses and vaccinate livestock when they find dead animals that are bloated or bloody–common signs of the disease,” said Fancher. “Anthrax is a reportable disease, however, and it’s important to know when an outbreak occurs, so other ranchers can be notified to vaccinate.”

Fancher explained that it is common to see death losses in one pasture, but not across the fence. However, all livestock in an infected area should be vaccinated, to prevent potential losses. There is no effective, approved manner to deliver anthrax vaccine to grazing wildlife that cannot be captured and confined.

Fancher said that during the anthrax outbreak, deer owners enrolled in the chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance program are to report death losses, but they should check with their private veterinary practitioners before collecting brain tissue from the animal for CWD testing. “If a dead deer has clinical signs of anthrax, we may need to avoid opening the carcass,” he said. CWD has not been detected in Texas