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Among the herbivores the disease is usually characterized by rapid and sudden death like that caused by a stroke. The onset is so sudden and the course so rapid that few if any clinical signs are usually observed before death. In one case a zebra was found dead with a mouthful of green grass on which it was feeding. In another instance, the carcass of an elephant cow was found with her calf pinned underneath her. She had evidently collapsed on top of the calf.

By opening up carcasses, predators and carrion-eaters promote spore formation and, therefore, the survival of the anthrax bacilli. As disseminators ot the disease, certain scavengers such as vultures, hyenas and jackals (some of which appear to have a high resistance to the disease), as well as some predators such as lions and leopards, play an important role. Evidence points to the vulture as one of the chief disseminators of Bacillus anthracis organisms during anthrax epizootics in the Kruger National Park. It has been noticed that vultures visit watering-places immediately after gorging themselves on dead animals, in order to bathe or drink. Here they invariably begin by washing off the gore adhering to their feathers and also sometimes vomit excess ingesta into the water or along the edges, thereby forming an ideal spontaneous means of transition. We presume that it is this manner that a large number of natural waterholes, as well as drinking-troughs situated at windmills and artificial dams, have become infected during previous outbreaks of the disease.

It has also been found that ordinary houseflies and blow-flies, which feed on and develop in decaying animal matter, play a major role in the dissemination of anthrax. There is ample evidence that in the epidemics which occurred in the Kruger Park, such insects played an important role, especially the infections of browsing species such as kudu and nyala. When disturbed during their feeding on carcasses, myriads of flies were seen to alight on an and contaminate the leaves of trees and shrubs which were later browsed by the herbivores. On a number of occasions the causal organisms was actually isolated from flies and from their excreta and vomit droplets.

One has to choose though, surely? One cannot take away culling and then when nature steps in with disease as a means of population control not let it take it's course! Where's the sense it that.

During a major outbreak or epidemic, control measures are primarily dependent on the proper and rapid disposal of carcasses by incineration.

As a preventative measure an "early warning system" was instituted. In 1971 a technician was appointed with the following duties: to organize the collection of blood smears and other samples from each animal carcass in the high risk anthrax area; to examine these specimens for the presence of anthrax bacilli; to traverse the areas regularly and asses the activity of vultures; and to treat water supplies during the high risk anthrax season. This step has already proved worthwhile for during 1971 infection in the roan habitat was picked up at a very early date and smothered timeously and effectively. In this way what would probably have been a major epixootic was warded off.