Anthrax Surveillance and Control in China

An anthrax surveillance network has been set up in 10 high-incidence provinces to find out epidemic and epizootic patterns and to adopt proper prevention meadures. Stations were installed in those provinces to carry out the works on epidemiology, aetiology , serology , immunology , and enviro- mental monitoring. The surveillance showed the main infectious sources of anthrax were sheep in thenorth part of China and cattle in the south,and the main infection way was skinning and eating the ill or dead livestock.The incidence relatively concentrated in some low lying areas,especially after the dry spring and flooded summer,82.4% of the epidemic peak from June to September.More than 60% of the cases occurred in the age group of 20-49,cutaneous anthrax was 91.84%,intestinal 5.97%,pul-monary 2.18%,Most of the epidemics were focus outbreaks moving about place to place. In China,there are infectious foci covered vast area with heavy contamination.The positive rate of the environmental samples was 6.1%,and the contamination would last a very long period.The contamination formed subclinical infections were found in human population and herds after the out-breaks,suggested the vaccination would be an important and effect measure.The anthrax control on China needs more input and long period efforts.