Raccoon rabies secures 2 bridgeheads in Canada

Barbara Sibbald

Raccoon rabies appears to have hitched its way across the US border into New Brunswick. The virus also crossed into Ontario in 1999, but it has been confined to the Brockville area through a baited-vaccine program.

Raccoon rabies was first described in Florida in 1947, when the first and only human case was reported, and it has since been making its way north. Each rabies strain has unique characteristics but can be transmitted to other species, including humans.

The advent of raccoon rabies in Canada comes as the incidence of the Arctic fox strain, once the dominant variety, has been slashed by 97%, largely due to baited-vaccine programs. “There's no end to it,” laments Doug Hayes, staff veterinarian with the Animal Health and Production Division of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). “We just get rid of one and there's another.”

In New Brunswick, where the virus was first detected in September 2000, the government is trying to keep the strain under control by educating physicians and the public and through enhanced surveillance. The strain has been confined to an area near St. Stephen. “We suspect the raccoons may have hitchhiked on a logging truck from Maine into New Brunswick,” said Hayes.

Dr. Wayne MacDonald, New Brunswick's chief medical officer, said the government is considering baited vaccines, but deterrents include the cost (Ontario spent $604 000 on its program in 1999) and the fact that Maine isn't interested in such a program.

The CFIA says the number of lab-verified cases of raccoon rabies increased from 13 in 1999 to 47 in 2000, but the actual incidence is probably much higher. Ontario reported 69 cases of raccoon rabies from January to May of this year, while NB had 38 cases.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan had a recent surge in the number of cases of skunk rabies, with 241 cases reported during 2000. Nationally, there were 670 documented cases of animal rabies in 2000; 60% (404 cases) involved the skunk strain, 11% (72 cases) the bat strain and about 8% the fox strain (58 cases). Canada recorded its first human death due to rabies in 15 years during 2000, when a young Quebec boy was infected by a bat.