China shuts cattle farm after anthrax outbreak, five human infections

Beijing: China's eastern Shandong province reported five people were infected with anthrax and a beef cattle farm was shut after an outbreak was discovered in the agricultural province.

All of the livestock on the farm were culled, the disease control and prevention centre of Yanggu county in Shandong said in a statement on WeChat.

Five farm workers with direct contact with the infected animals were diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax and are undergoing treatment in isolation, it said.

"Cutaneous anthrax is a zoonotic infectious disease that is preventable, controllable and treatable, and transmission between humans is rare," the centre wrote.

Anthrax is a bacteria found naturally in soil and commonly affects animals that come in contract with spores in contaminated soil, plants, or water.

It mostly infects susceptible herbivores, such as cattle, mules, sheep, horses, and donkeys.

Anthrax is not contagious and humans can only get infected by ingesting the bacteria.

(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Kim Coghill)