shiawasseecounty.net

US Declared Canine-Rabies Free
CDC Announces at Inaugural World Rabies Day Symposium

Published: September 7, 2007


(Photo courtesy of World Society for the Protection of Animals)
For the last several decades, state and local public health authorities in the United States have been working tirelessly on the prevention and control of rabies. Coincident with the recognition of World Rabies Day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has formally declared the elimination of the type of rabies previously found in dogs in the United States. This declaration is supported by animal rabies surveillance nationally.

"The elimination of canine rabies in the United States represents one of the major public health success stories in the last 50 years," stated Dr. Charles Rupprecht, Chief of the CDC Rabies Program. "However, there is still much work to be done to prevent and control rabies globally."

Rabies in humans is preventable, yet accounts for at least 55,000 deaths annually around the world—almost one death every 10 minutes. The World Rabies Day initiative, founded by CDC and the UK charity Alliance for Rabies Control and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), aims to bring together the appropriate stakeholders to raise awareness and funding for rabies prevention and control globally.

"We are looking at this as larger than a one-day event," says Dr. Deborah Briggs, Executive Director of Alliance for Rabies Control, "This is the first-step in a long-term effort towards human rabies prevention and animal rabies control globally."

In the United States, canine-rabies elimination was achieved through implementation of dog vaccination and licensing, and stray dog control. "We remain optimistic that this official declaration of canine-rabies free status in the United States could be replicated throughout the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere." says Rupprecht. However adoption of dogs from other countries with canine-rabies demonstrates the fragile nature of the current canine-rabies-free status of the United States and highlights the need for global control and continued emphasis on rabies prevention and control from the local to national levels.


"The elimination of dog-to-dog transmission of rabies does not mean that people in the US can stop vaccinating their pets against rabies," warns Rupprecht. "Rabies is ever-present in wildlife and can be transmitted to dogs or other pets. We need to stay vigilant."

Despite the elimination of canine-rabies, the disease remains a human threat in the US particularly from bats. Rabies also remains a potential threat through spillover infections from wildlife to domestic animals adaptation to new animal reservoirs, movement of potentially infected animals, and lack of adequate vaccination coverage of domestic animals, particularly cats and dogs.

"We can thank the tremendous historical efforts at the state and local levels over the past several decades for the ultimate elimination of canine rabies in the US," says Dr. Rupprecht. "Our public health infrastructure, including our quarantine stations, local animal control programs, veterinarians, and clinicians all play a vital role in preserving the canine-rabies-free status in the US."

CDC and its numerous global partners will utilize World Rabies Day as an opportunity to celebrate the successes we have made in rabies prevention and control domestically, while recognizing our responsibility to commit to the challenge of global canine rabies elimination, human rabies prevention, and wildlife rabies control.

For more information about World Rabies Day, please visit the CDC (www.cdc.gov/worldrabiesday) or World Rabies Day (www.worldrabiesday.org) web sites.

http://www.cdc.gov/news/2007/09/canine_rabies.html

"Every year over 10 million people in Asia and Africa require a course of rabies vaccine injections for protection following bites from animals suspected of having rabies.

"This statistic is even more tragic as we also know that young children are at highest risk of rabies infection," said Dr. Jean-Marc Olive, WHO Representative in Viet Nam. This is because children are mostly bitten on the neck allowing the virus reach the brain, with fatal results, more quickly than adults who are mostly bitten on their legs. Vaccinations must be given prior to the virus arriving in the brain to prevent death." (thought Kevin would like that last little tdibit from an article on the worldrabiesday website)

Thanks for the interesting morning read for me on the forum, kaylor. Amazing how widespread rabies in the other parts of the world. Good stuff, good reading.

Well, the Lansing State Journal (or maybe the Associated Press) says that it was still a banner year for rabies.



Looks like we are doing pretty well on keeping our skunks, cats, and horses vaccinated also.

I can't keep up on my bats, though, and the license fees are killing me.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domestic ... 2020070907

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal health experts declared a small victory against a fatal and untreatable virus on Friday, saying canine rabies has disappeared from the United States.

While dogs may still become infected from raccoons, skunks or bats, they ill not catch dog-specific rabies from another dog, the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"We don't want to misconstrue that rabies has been eliminated -- dog rabies virus has been," CDC rabies expert Dr. Charles Rupprecht told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Rabies evolves to match the animals it infects, and the strain most specific to dogs has not been seen anywhere in the United States since 2004, Rupprecht said.

While the incubation period for rabies is as long as six years in humans, it is only six months in a dog.

"Even though we still live in a sea of rabies and even though we have rabies viruses circulating among raccoons and foxes and bats, the dog rabies virus, which is the most responsible for dog-to-dog transmission and which is still the greatest burden to humans ... it is that virus that has been eliminated."

Rabies kills 55,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health organization. It is easily prevented with a vaccine, but many people do not realize they have been infected and once symptoms begin to show, it is almost impossible to treat.

Only one person -- a Wisconsin girl who was put into an intentional coma in 2004 -- has ever been known to have survived rabies infection.

Rupprecht said attempts to treat three victims in the United States and one in Canada have failed. The victims all died.

The virus can infect virtually all mammals, but like most viruses it evolves and can be "typed" genetically. Species-specific strains are well characterized for bats, raccoons and skunks for instance, as well as for dogs.

"A dog rabies is very different from a skunk rabies virus," Rupprecht said.

While cats are susceptible, Rupprecht said there is not a known rabies strain specific to domestic cats.

Mandatory vaccination has created what is known as herd immunity in U.S. dogs, Rupprecht said, and it will be vital to continue this to protect dogs -- and people -- from the virus."The elimination of canine rabies in the United States represents one of the major public health success stories in the last 50 years," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said in a statement.

"However, there is still much work to be done to prevent and control rabies globally."

Canine rabies is still very common in many countries, including much of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, the Philippines and elewhere.

Some island nations such as Japan, New Zealand, Barbados, Fiji, Maldives, and Seychelles are rabies-free.

Greece, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Uruguay and Chile are also free of rabies.

Guess I'll have to bring this one back up for Fritz to read.

It takes a long time to change a law.

The free and/or low-cost vaccination clinics at least help the people reduce the cost of vaccinating their dogs for a disease that no longer exists.

But the laws requiring vaccinations/licenses are still on the books.

That's okay, that puts some extra money into the county treasury.

Let the dog owners support the county.

I'm still not sure what the area of disagreement is between us but it seems from your posts that you are saying we don't need to vaccinate dogs against rabies any more. Then you post this: "The elimination of dog-to-dog transmission of rabies does not mean that people in the US can stop vaccinating their pets against rabies," warns Rupprecht. "Rabies is ever-present in wildlife and can be transmitted to dogs or other pets. We need to stay vigilant."

I didn't say that, but I did include the complete article that quoted someone from the CDC as saying that.

Those people (at the CDC) could give a rip if all this dog vaccinating/licensing/policing are 99.9999999999% unnecessary.

Our dogs are about as likely to get rabies from a bat or skunk as we are.
We don't vaccinate people. Why not? There is a vaccine available.

Vaccinating/licensing/policing dogs is no more necessary than vaccinating people. Seems like it would be more important to vaccinate people.

Aw, but then the animal control people would have no excuse to harass dog owners. tsk-tsk

CH 6 had a panic attack story about a rabid fox biting a man in Livingston County. This map show there have been two cases of rabies in fox so far this year.

They don't say if it is the canine strain or another that crossed over.
Any strain can cross to another species.

Maps of Rabies Positive Animals in Michigan

http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdisease ... --,00.html