Clinton News Record, 2015-12-16, Page 1414 News Record • Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Newest rabies threat may
be lurking in your backyard
John Miner
Postmedia Network
If you already can't stand
raccoons that topple your
trash cans and claw their
way into your attics and
chimneys, now you've got
another reason to be wary of
the masked bandits.
The sudden combeback
of raccoon rabies in
Ontario, after a decade
without the scourge, means
pet owners need to be
especially vigilant about
the widespread creatures
often seen in early evening
and at night.
Getting pets vaccinated
against rabies is always
important, but more so
now than ever, says the pro-
vincial manager of the
rabies- repsonse program.
Rabies can be transmitted
from pets to humans.
"There is a risk because
they are critters we see in
our backyards," said Kris-
tina Cooper of the Ontario
Association of Veterinary
Technicians' rabies -
response program.
Bats have accounted for
nearly all of Ontario's con-
firmed rabies cases in
recent years, she said.
Fox rabies — once so
prevalent in Southwestern
Ontario, that many rural
counties paid a fox bounty
— has also been brought to
bay, with no reported cases
in five years.
Overall, reported cases of
rabies in Ontario have
fallen sharply since 2007,
when there were 106 cases
detected in everything from
bats and skunks, to cows
and even a donkey, to 13
withoutthanksat
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cases — all in bats — in the
first 10 months of the year,
federal statistics show.
But raccoons have sud-
denly stolen the spotlight
for the deadly viral disease
often found in wild ani-
mals, with testing on four
dead raccoons found in
Hamilton on Dec. 4 con-
firming they died of a strain
of raccoon rabies never
seen in that city before.
The first rabid raccoon
was discovered after it got
into a fight with two bull
mastiffs in the back of an
animal control van, after
the raccoon and one dog
got loose.
Authorities have since
been dropping baited vac-
cine pellets in that area,
trying to stop the disease
spreading.
With raccoons so preva-
lent in urban areas, with
estimates of their numbers
in southern Ontario rang-
ing above 1 million, the
No 1 thing people can do
to prevent rabies is to get
their pets vaccinated, said
Cooper.
They should also super-
vise their pets when they're
outdoors to prevent contact
with wild animals, wildlife -
proof their properties and
avoid feeding animals, she
said.
In the wake of the Hamil-
ton rabies cases, Ontario's
Ministry of Natural
Resources and Forestry
blitzed the area with 45,000
vaccine baits, dropped by
helicopter and also spread
by foot.
The use of baited vaccine
pellets is credited with
reducing the number of
rabies cases in Ontario by
more than 99 per cent over
the last 20 years.
Before the program was
begun, Southwestern
Ontario was one of the
world's two hotspots for the
disease, which is virtually
100% fatal in humans if
they're not treated.
Transmitted in the saliva
of rabid animals, rabies
kills tens of thousands of
people each year, according
to the World Health
Organization.
Most people are infected
by dogs, with 95 per cent of
the deaths reported in Asia
and Africa.
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