The recent anthrax scares on Kaua’i didn’t mark the first time the disease made headlines on the island. Nearly 100 years ago, cattle in the North Shore area, particularly at Princeville Ranch but also at Hanalei and Kalihiwai, fell prey
The recent anthrax scares on Kaua’i didn’t mark the first time the disease made headlines on the island.
Nearly 100 years ago, cattle in the North Shore area, particularly at Princeville Ranch but also at Hanalei and Kalihiwai, fell prey to the disease, thought to have come from contaminated feed shipped in from California. The disease was supposedly prevalent around Sacramento.
In the April 17, 1917 edition of The Garden Island, the death of 70 cattle from anthrax was reported, along with fear that the disease was spreading through streams and had gotten into the soil of the affected areas.
If the disease had permeated the soils, the newspaper reported, the “evil” may be “ever with us, in hiding, and (we) will be liable (to) an outbreak at any time, perhaps years hence.”
In that same story, it was indicated that infected animals were killed and their carcasses were burned.
A quarantine on all domestic animals followed the anthrax discovery as the cause of death or disease in several head of cattle on Kaua’i. Those not abiding by the quarantine risked fines of $500 for being caught shipping any domestic animals off the island, bringing any to Kaua’i, or failing to report suspected anthrax to the territorial veterinarian, according to a report in the April 24, 1917 issue of The Garden Island.
By the following month, though, with only one or two deaths a day reported, newspaper accounts indicated the situation was “well in hand,” despite the fact that when the initial outbreaks were reported the nearest serum was thousands of miles and a grueling steamship ride away in California.
In May 1917, serum left over from the Kaua’i outbreak was sent to Mo’ili’ili on O’ahu when cattle there tested positive for anthrax.
In June 1917, the cattle of J.H. Coney of Niumalu were quarantined when anthrax was discovered there.
Kauai’s North Shore quarantine lasted well over a year. It was not until August 1918 that Dr. Victor Norgaard, territorial veterinarian, lifted the quarantine after visiting the island and affected areas the month before.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
