Explore the recorded discovery and history of Bacillus anthracis, with source links and stated limits.
PHAC describes B. anthracis as Gram-positive, rod-shaped cells of 1.0 to 1.5 by 3 to 8 micrometres that occur singly or in chains, non-motile, facultatively anaerobic, and forming metabolically dormant, environmentally resistant endospores; some strains produce capsules and exotoxins. PHAC states that at least 2,000 cases of human anthrax occur annually worldwide and that approximately 95% result from handling or processing infected meat or animal products, with human-to-human transmission rare. CDC states that people usually get sick if they come in contact with anthrax spores in infected animals or contaminated animal products, through a cut or scrape in the skin, by breathing them in, or by eating contaminated food or water. The cutaneous form accounts for about 95% of cases and has mortality under 1% with treatment; inhalational anthrax is far more dangerous.
LPSN records Bacillus anthracis Cohn 1872, effectively published in Cohn’s Untersuchungen über Bakterien, and retained on the 1980 Approved Lists of Bacterial Names. The epithet derives from the Greek for charcoal or a carbuncle, describing the black skin lesion rather than the organism. Type strain ATCC 14578 / NCTC 10340.
These references do not identify a first person ever infected. Anthrax in livestock and in people who handle animal products was recognised before the organism was named in 1872, so this naming record cannot date a first case or an origin.
Source check: 2026-09-20. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.