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Are You Rabies-Ready?: Unifour Counties Planning Inexpensive Vaccination Clinics for Pets

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Hannah Mitchell, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Apr. 5--With warm weather's arrival in the foothills, public health officials are warning people to steer clear of wild animals to protect themselves against rabies.

Already this year, four wild animals sent from Alexander County to the state rabies lab tested positive for the virus -- two skunks, one raccoon and one fox.

Alexander is tied with Cleveland County for the third-highest number of positive rabies cases among N.C. counties this year.

Catawba County had one raccoon test positive for rabies. Burke and Caldwell have had none.

Area counties are planning inexpensive rabies vaccination clinics for pets to prevent dogs and cats from catching the virus. If an unvaccinated pet comes into contact with a rabid animal, counties are required to euthanize the pet.

Officials can't take chances with the virus, said Alexander Health Director Leeanne Whisnant, because it can go undetected in people for weeks, even years in rare cases, before symptoms appear.

"Rabies is fatal to people," Whisnant said. "After symptoms appear, it's almost a hundred percent fatality rate."

Even if the virus is caught early enough in people, rabies inoculations are expensive and painful, Whisnant said.

Besides offering pet vaccinations, public health officials are also trying to educate the public to stay away from wild animals. Children, especially, should know that even if an animal is cute, it may not be safe.

"We've had people chased from their mailboxes to the house," Whisnant said. "A raccoon latched on to a fellow's tire, attacked his tire. He was smart -- he drove on and it threw it off onto the bank."

Rabies cases in North Carolina peaked in 1995 and have since leveled off, said Peggy Brantley, who supervises the state rabies lab.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture started doing rabies vaccination drops in several mountain counties last year. The drops are part of a baited area stretching from Lake Erie to the Tennessee-North Carolina border to prevent western spread of the disease, said Carl Betsill, state wildlife disease biologist. Eventually, the drops will extend to the Gulf of Mexico and eastward.

Workers drop vaccination packets from planes, cars and by hand in areas where raccoons are found. Rabies is found primarily in raccoons, which can spread it to other mammals, particularly foxes and skunks.

"We feel like if we can control it in the raccoon population," Betsill said, "the spillover into the fox and skunk would stop."

Pet Vaccinations

Upcoming clinics:

Alexander

4-5 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays in April at county Animal Shelter off N.C. 16 North in Taylorsville. Cost: $5.

Burke

Planning clinics for May, no schedule yet. Details: (828) 438-5465.

Caldwell

Done only on as-needed basis until fall.

Catawba

Clinics every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in April. Full schedule on county Web site at www.co.catawba.nc.us/ events/rabclin06.asp.

Hannah Mitchell: (828) 324-0055.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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