Anthrax is a deadly, infectious disease caused by a bacterium, Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax usually attacks animals, but can also infect humans. It is one of about 150 known zoonotic diseases, which can be passed directly from animals to humans under natural conditions.

The disease now commonly known as anthrax probably originated at least eleven thousand years ago, when human beings began to domesticate animals. Over the course of history, the affliction was called by various names, including splenic fever, murrain, black bane, malignant edema, plague, and woolsorters' disease.

The name "anthrax" comes from anthrakis, the Greek word for coal, because of the large black-crusted sores the disease often causes in humans.

Historians believe one of the first written references to anthrax is found in the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, which describes events that occurred about 1445 B . C ., God sent Moses...