Anthrax outbreak in Slovakian cattle herd - health hazard to consumers from meat brought into Germany unlikely

Abstract

Cattle from a Slovakian cattle population were recently slaughtered in Poland. A few days later, some animals of the same herd became ill with and died of anthrax. Subsequently subjected to veterinary examinations, the animals slaughtered in Poland did not show any symptoms of illness. Nor did the meat inspection indicate that the cattle had contracted anthrax. Following clearance, the meat of the animals was delivered, via the Netherlands, to several meat processing plants in some member states of the European Union, before the anthrax cases in the Slovakian herd became known. Some of those processing plants are in Germany. Having received the information that meat from a herd potentially infected with anthrax had entered the food chain, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) conducted an initial evaluation of the risk of contamination of meat with the anthrax pathogen and of anthrax infection in humans in Germany. ; DE; en; efsa-focal-point@bfr.bund.de)