Caused by a bacteria, anthrax is a life-threatening deadly disease. While rare, people can contract the disease if they come into contact with infected animals, people or contaminated animal products. But anthrax is only one species in a group of bacteria, and now researchers have identified a brand new pathogen causing an anthrax-like disease in Central Africa that infects both domestic and wild animals, including our closest evolutionary relatives.
After sampling goats in a remote Congolese village, researchers from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin isolated a bacteria found in an animal that was dying. Not long after, they also sampled the remains of a chimpanzee, gorilla, and forest elephant found dead in the forests of Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Anthrax - especially dangerous infectious diseases. It is characterized by high mortality in the absence of treatment (90 percent), and can lead to death even if the treatment was carried out. The sources of infection are usually pets: cattle, horses, goats, sheep, camels and blood-sucking insects.
http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0004922
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/new-pathogen-discovered-in-africa-causes-anthraxlike-disease/