Russia sanitary chief warns of anthrax epidemic
by Evgeniya Chaykovskaya at 20/03/2012
The Moscow news
R
ussia’s
chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko is warning that floods as a
result of ice melting could cause an epidemic of anthrax in Russia.
This spring flood waters could inundate 38 cattle burial sites for animals that died from anthrax, which could threaten locals, the head of Rospotrebnadzor said.
Fourteen areas monitored
As a result of the risk Onishchenko ordered increased control over 14 federation subjects, Interfax reported.
Rospotrebnadzor’s regional divisions should pay closer attention to the condition of water supplies, drain systems, animal burial sites, warehouses with poisonous chemicals, pesticides, fuel, and oil bases in the areas of possible flooding.
Rospotrebnadzor announced that in the Central Federal Region there are eight burial sites for animals with anthrax, and they could be flooded, including two in Ivanovo region, two in Kursk region and four in Smolensk region.
Moreover, the condition of the potentially dangerous sites is not up to the norms of veterinary and sanitary controls. The situation is made worse by the fact that it is not clear who owns the sites. Thus, if they are destroyed by floodwaters, it is unclear who would be responsible for restoring them.
In order to prevent the situation, Gennady Onishchenko ordered his department to note all the places where animals with anthrax could have been buried that might fall in the flooded areas.
Water under control
The areas have to be provided with adequate resources for water purification if it becomes infected.
Rospotrebnazdor also aims to tightly control the quality of drinking water and will prepare medicine for immunisation in case there is an epidemic.
Anthrax is a dangerous infectious disease that affects both humans and animals. There are two forms for people – skin and septic, while animals could also be affected by forms in the intestine and lungs.
The disease is known in Russia as “Siberian pox” because of its wide presence in Siberia, and is transmitted through earth and water infected through excrement of affected animals, and can be lethal.
One of the most famous anthrax epidemics was in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in 1979. Soviet authorities said it started after consumption of meat from infected animals. However, it is widely believed to have been caused by an accident at a military biological laboratory in the city.
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Vet’s jail-sentence over animal anesthetic upheld
by Alina Lobzina at 15/06/2012 13:21
The Moscow News
A
vet found guilty of selling an anesthetic to a colleague who turned
out to be an undercover cop is to stay behind bars for eight years, a
city court in St. Petersburg ruled on Thursday.
The Alexander Shpak’s legal appeal saw little sympathy from the judge, who reduced the previous sentence by just six months.
The former vet has to pay a 30,000 ruble fine and will be banned from working as an animal doctor for eight years, Interfax reported.
Shocking verdict
Shpak’s lawyers and supporters were shocked by the verdict, and are going to appeal again. His lawyers had hoped the court would change the penalty to a suspended sentence.
The vet was found guilty for selling ketamine on two occasions to a person he said he met at a vet conference. Later, it was revealed that the new acquaintance was a member of the narcotics police.
The vet’s lawyers said the state drug control agency’s employee abused his authority and committed a crime himself.
“The drugs watchdog violated the law on investigative activities that forbids entrapment,” Yevgeny Chernousov, a lawyer from Moscow’s lawyer society, said earlier. “In addition to that, the vet sold ketamine to help an animal, not to a drug addict,” he added.
Operating on unanesthetized animals
Ketamine was widely used in Russia as anesthetic in animal surgery before it was listed among restricted medicines. In order to use it, veterinary clinics need to get a special license and spend substantial amounts on specially equipped high-security premises where the medicine must be kept according to the new rules introduced in the early 2000s.
Since only big clinics can afford this, many Russian vets operate on unanesthetized animals, Newsru reported.
“In Russia, we have gone back in time to the 18th -19th century in the veterinary field, when general anesthesia wasn’t invented,” Irina Novozhilova, president at animal rights centre Vita, told Interfax earlier this year.
‘Providing drugs via injections to a cat’
Shpak’s case was just one in a series of ketamine scandals that first started in 2003. The State Agency for Drug Control decided at the time that the popular anesthetic should be restricted.
The drug has never been popular among human drug users because of its “very specific unpleasant hallucinations,” according to Chernousov. For vets and their patients, the new rules became a real pain.
A number of vets were sentenced for “providing drugs via injections to a cat,” according to media reports. Some vets, who couldn’t afford to meet all new requirements, started operating using paralyzing drugs, instead of painkillers.
Representatives of the state drug control agencies, however, say that the problem is that vets don’t want to spend extra money for licensing and special equipment, or use other methods, Newsru reported.
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