Since early this month, Anthrax, one of the most dreaded infectious diseases of warm blooded animals, has been killing cattle in Burma’s northern Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina, said local sources.

Eyewitnesses in Myitkyina said several herds of cattle owned by civilians around Myitkyina died within 24 hours after they showed “foot-tremble symptoms”.

Veterinary doctors say Anthrax causes fever, swelling and often death in animals, especially sheep and cattle. And it can be passed on to humans.

Cattle owners and residents of Myitkyina are scared that the disease can be passed on to humans, residents said.

At the same time, government’s veterinary doctors and staff have swiftly responded to the disease. They are injecting anti-Anthrax vaccines to cattle in villages around Myitkyina by visiting village after village taking the help of village administrative offices, said local cattle owners.

Locals added, that the Burmese ruling junta’s response to the Anthrax disease in Myitkyina is silent without public announcement in the township.  However, they did not bother to warn civilians not to sell meat of cattle dying from Anthrax in local markets, said locals.

According to residents, local people believe that the disease is said to have spread in Myitkyina areas due to changing weather from winter to summer in Kachin State.

Meanwhile, farmers in villages around Myitkyina are terribly worried about losing their cattle to the disease because they mainly rely on cattle for ploughing their rice paddy and crop fields.