head picture
Bacillus anthracis
microscope picture gram positive rods

Bacillus anthracis - the causative agent of anthrax

This image depicted numbers of Bacillus anthracis bacterial colonies, which had been allowed to grow on sheep’s blood agar for a 24 hour period. Note the classical appearance exhibited in the colonial morphology including a ground-glass, non-pigmented texture with accompanying “comma” projections from some of the individual rough-edged colonies.

What is anthrax?

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic mammalian species (cattle, sheep, goats, camels, antelopes, and other herbivores), but it can also occur in humans when they are exposed to infected animals or to tissue from infected animals or when anthrax spores are used as a bioterrorist weapon.
Text: CDC
Microscopy:
Gram-positive, spore-forming rods.
 

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