Fifth raccoon rabies case confirmed in Ontario

Theglobeandmail.com
Dec. 14, 2015
By Paola Loriggio

More vaccine-laced baits will be dropped in Ontario after wildlife officials said a fifth case of raccoon rabies had been confirmed.

The infected raccoon was found Friday in a small community north of Cayuga, about 25 kilometres south of Hamilton, where the four earlier rabies cases were located, said the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

That the virus has surfaced kilometres from the initial area is “not alarming,” the ministry’s manager of wildlife research said.

“We wished it wasn’t spreading out like that but all you can do when you’re battling raccoon rabies is you find the cases and you bait out to them, so that’s what we’re in the process of doing,” Chris Davies said.

The discovery earlier this month of the first raccoon in the province to test positive for the raccoon rabies strain since 2005 prompted wildlife officials to step up their vaccine blitz.

Tens of thousands of rabies vaccine baits were dropped last week in an expanded area south and southwest of Hamilton in an effort to contain the outbreak.

And a crew set to fly over a 25-kilometre circle around the area Monday will take up to 147,000 baits, though fewer are likely to make it to the ground, Davies said.

“As we fly along, we obviously don’t drop baits where there are towns and things like that,” he said, adding staff will drop bait by hand in urban areas.

The re-emergence of the virus only came to light after two dogs got into a fight with a sick animal in the back of an animal services van in Hamilton.

An animal services officer picked up the bull mastiffs, Mr. Satan and Lexus, after they escaped their yard and placed them in cages in a van with a sick raccoon.

The raccoon and one of the dogs got loose and fought in the van. Both unvaccinated dogs were hurt and exposed to the virus. The raccoon was euthanized after testing positive.

The dogs appear to be fine and remain in quarantine with the city’s Animal Services unit, according to owner Paula Fancey’s lawyer, Brian Simo. They have received rabies shots while in quarantine.

Mr. Satan and Lexus cannot stay there for the duration, however, and the family must find boarding options for them.

The family is responsible for finding - and funding - a facility to board the dogs that follow strict guidelines set out by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Simo said.

“Your average residential dog owners would not be able to do it - there are minors in the house and other pets - and the dogs cannot be around either,” Simo said.

“It’s created a real problem and we’re desperate to find a home for them.”

Boarding dogs for three months is expensive, Simo said, and the family is struggling to afford it.

The ministry has previously said euthanasia is an option and they have the power to seize the dogs, but is trying to work with the family to avoid that option.