Organsims grow inside phagocytes, produce chronic disease, difficult to get rid of. Fever, chills, weakness, aching. Chronic form can last more than a year and produces low grade symptoms 4. Primarily a disease of cattle, sheep, goats - grazing animals which acquire the organism from the soil where they grow slowly. In animals get a fulminating septicemia.
Humans get disease by handling animals or animal products such as hides and wool, goat hair.
Bacteria enter via cuts and abrasions. Bacteria grow in capillaries. Pulmonary anthrax - woolsorter's disease is most dangerous form 4. Penicillin used to treat, but only useful in early stages - later the exotoxin produces damage even after the bacteria are gone. Bacteria grow anaerobically, ferment carbohydrates in the tissues and produce gases that swell the tissue and prevent proper circulation.