In my discussions with one of our very skilled veterinarians that we have in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources when I was on-site doing a tour, it was pointed out to me that on almost every site they were tracking the type of fuel mixtures that they used. They tried some with dry wood and green wood and no coal, some with coal, some with coal and green wood. They tried just tarping some to see how natural decomposition would work in the heat. They were going to go back
in the fall and test all the burn sites with all these carefully identified and catalogued burn sites to check the spore count to see the degree of success in eliminating the anthrax spores, and the lower the number, of course, the better.
We’ve had some discussion, as well, and some suggestions from the folks on the ground that work, really, like Trojans, in the incredible heat of summer disposing of the carcasses, suggestions similar to the suggestion you made, Mr. Chairman, for future outbreaks, coming up with a better way to dispose of carcasses that would see us possibly coming up with basically a big lid that you could put over a carcass once it’s burning, to capture all the heat and have improved incineration of the carcass and destruction of the anthrax spores. We’re looking at that as well.
From what I understand, as well, talking to the veterinarian, that this is a scientific issue of great concern across the land, so there’s going to be papers written on this. There will be a comparison with other scientists, other jurisdictions as they track what they do. This is an evolving science.
My final comment would be, I was told that in the old days they used to think it was best to dig a pit, put the animals in and dump in quick lime and that would dispose of the carcasses. Then they found out over time that in fact the spores thrive on the calcium and the quick lime ingredients. They went back to check some of these other sites where they had done that and there were literally cauldrons of anthrax spores as opposed to a site with no spores left. We’ve learned a lot from that case and we’re going to learn a lot from this one as well. Thank you.