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• Household pests

Be Smart About Rabies

Let's all have Rabies Smarts this year in Ontario. The month of May begins a season when we are outdoors more. Encounters with neighbourhood pets and wild animals increase. Unfortunately, it's also a time when we could come in contact with rabid animals. Rabies is a virus that can be fatal if you are infected. Be aware of the presence of wild animals in your neighbourhood, particularly where children and pets play. Be familiar with the signs of rabies in both domestic and wild animals. Know who you should contact locally if you suspect an animal of having rabies.

What is Rabies?

Rabies is a virus with several strains that use foxes, skunks, bats and raccoons as carriers. It can spread to other wild or domestic animals and to humans. The virus proves fatal to most infected animals and humans. Rabies is carried in an animal's saliva and is transmitted by contact through a cut, a scratch, or through the moist tissues of the mouth, nose or eyes.

Recognizing rabies

Some animals may become depressed and lose their fear of humans, while others show extreme excitement and aggression. In early stages of the disease, the animal may show no signs at all. To be safe, stay away.

Rabies in raccoons

A strain of rabies virus in the raccoon population has spread from the southern United States to New York State and is now at Ontario's southern border. Unfortunately, the Great Lakes present only a temporary barrier to this infestation. It is only a matter of time before a diseased raccoon makes its way across the border and spreads rabies to other animals or humans.

Rabies in bats

Bats are carriers of rabies and can spread the disease to humans through their saliva, by direct contact with a bat. It is important to report bats found in such situations to the health unit. It is possible to have the bat tested for rabies. If the animal tests positive, treatment is available for the exposed person. Bat tests positive for rabies in Northern Ontario.

What Can You Do?

There is much that you can do to help identify and prevent the spread of rabies. Here are some of the preventive actions you can take:

• Make sure your pet is vaccinated against rabies each year.
• Keep your pet confined or on a leash.
• Learn to identify the signs of rabies in animals.
• Warn your children to stay away from wild, stray, or aggressive animals to protect themselves.
• Seek immediate medical attention if contacted by a potentially rabid animal.
• If you see a potentially rabid animal, contact your local animal control department.
• Don't touch bats, and reduce your chances of contact by bat-proofing your house, cottage and workplace.
• Raccoon-proof your home.
• Be on the look-out for hitchhiking raccoons.

Community Preparedness

The Ontario Raccoon Rabies Task Force has in place a strategic plan for countering the spread of raccoon rabies. This includes leading a program of preventive action involving local organizations, the provincial government and the federal government.

What government and health agencies are doing about rabies

Every year the government of Ontario declares May Rabies Awareness Month and ensures that information about the rabies virus is made available through community health units and schools. This information will help you and your children to recognize signs of rabies and to know what you should do if you encounter an animal suspected of having rabies.

The Rabies Research Unit of the Ministry of Natural Resources has been working over the past few years to create a buffer zone of protection against raccoon rabies between the Niagara River and the Welland Canal by immunizing raccoons through a trap-vaccinate-release program. In 1995, the ministry created additional protection zones at bridges along the St. Lawrence River where infected raccoons can easily cross from New York State. The ministry continues to expand this buffer zone each year.

Rabies is not new to Ontario. We have been winning the battle with rabies in foxes over the past 24 years. The Ministry of Natural Resources is a leader in the development of vaccination techniques (such as aerial dropping of oral vaccines) in wildlife species such as foxes, and most recently in raccoons, in both urban and rural areas.

For more information about rabies, please contact your local public health unit or call the Ministry of Health hotline, toll-free from anywhere in Ontario: 1-800-461-2036.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Health, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

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