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Politics : Homeland Security

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To: Jill who wrote (290)	11/2/2001 6:27:08 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) of 827

Anthrax in the the African wild Last weekend I saw a National Geographic special about a couple who had spent years studying wildlife and anthrax at Etosha National Park in Namibia. Here is a brief summary: The goal of the anthrax bacteria is to kill the victim and then consume all the edible nutrients. Anthrax can kill a three-ton bull elephant in one day. The primary victims are grazers such as antelope that crop close to the ground during the dry season and pick up the spores. The spores apparently infect lesions in the mouth and gut. Predators can also get anthrax but here it gets interesting. Lions and hyenas rarely die of anthrax, but cheetahs have a much higher death rate from it. The main difference here is that lions and hyenas are scavengers, but cheetahs are not. Apparently lions and hyenas are frequently exposed to small amounts of anthrax, and thus build up antibodies that protect them. They are not quite sure why only some of the grazers get anthrax. But obviously the disease has to be selective -- if all the animals got infected they would go extinct and there would be no more hosts for the anthrax.

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