The Rural Voice, 1997-08, Page 53News
there were still rabies cases all over
southern Ontario. Although these
were thinly scattered, rabies was still
widespread. The second area of
major concern was the continued
presence of rabid foxes in northern
Ontario and Quebec during the year.
That indicates that re -invasion of
southern Ontario remains a
possibility. Although there were not
many cases, that may be more a
reflection of the opportunity for the
sparse human population to report
rabid animals than a scarcity of
rabies.
The signs continued to show that
the downturn in rabies is a result of
the baiting program, not just a natural
low in rabies. The strongest indicator
was that rabid skunks outnumbered
rabid foxes by 70 to 34. When you
note that 10 of 34 rabid foxes during
the year were in northern Ontario,
this difference looms even larger. In
normal times, fox cases outnumbered
skunk cases by about 2.5:1.
Remember that the vaccine in the
baits is effective in foxes but not so
in skunks.
The goal of the fox rabies
program is to have the fox strain of
rabies completely eliminated from
southern Ontario by 2001. A second
objective is to have rabies reduced by
90 per cent from 1980s levels by
1998. We have passed the latter
benchmark early and convincingly.
The 1996 case total was only 7.6 per
cent of the 2050 average of the
1980s. Experience in eastern Ontario
indicates that we need to keep baiting
for at least 1997 and 1998, but after
that we will have to plan a year at a
time, trying to figure out where the
last remnants are hiding.
It was a good year for rabies
control. Also, there has not yet been a
single case of raccoon rabies in
Ontario and the threat to our borders
was no worse during 1996 than it
was in 1995. In fact, the Cornell
sponsored baiting programs in New
York probably lessened the threat to
the Ontario border.°
Tell them you saw it in
The Rural Voice
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August 1997 49