Bacillus Anthracis 2

Bacillus Anthracis Robert Koch discovered Bacillus Anthracis, the bacterium for the deadly disease, Anthrax, in 1877. Robert Koch grew the bacterium into a pure culture, demonstrated its ability to form endospores, and produced experimental Anthrax by injecting it into animals. Bacillus Anthracis was the first bacterium shown to be the cause of a disease. Bacillus Anthracis is a very large, gram positive sporeforming rod. The organism is cultivated on ordinary nutrient medium and grows best aerobically, …

…has been no evidence of person to person transmission of the disease, though Anthrax was a subject of great concern for the military in the Gulf War. Many believed that the Iraqi armies held canisters of the Anthrax bacterium that they could use against their enemies. The largest reported outbreak of Anthrax was in 1956 in Scotland, where 70 people died of the disease in one week due to exposure to infected sheep in a farming village.