FOR RELEASE: Jan. 6, 1997
Contact: Roger Segelken
Office: (607) 255-9736
Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: Larry Bernard 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Concerned that raccoon rabies could infect wildlife and
humans, Canadian authorities are reaching across the border to help support
oral vaccination programs in Northeastern states by veterinarians and
wildlife biologists from the Cornell University College of Veterinary
Medicine.
Now, the province of Quebec is joining Ontario to assist programs that
distribute vaccine-filled baits for raccoons in northern counties of New
York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
"Our Canadian colleagues have been struggling to control fox rabies, and
they have demonstrated success with oral vaccines in baits," said Laura
Bigler, Ph.D., leader of the raccoon rabies vaccination programs in the
college's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. "The last thing they need now
is for raccoon rabies to spread to those provinces."
But raccoon rabies has progressed northward in the northeast United States
at the rate of about 25 miles a year. International borders mean nothing
to wandering animals, not even borders separated by rivers, which freeze in
winter or can be bridged by stow-away raccoons. So the Cornell program
attempts to immunize susceptible populations of raccoons, beginning with
areas along the U.S.-Canada border.
To date, support for the raccoon vaccination efforts has come from
government agencies where the greatest local threat was perceived -- from
some counties in northern New York, from the New York State Department of
Health and from funds allocated by members of the New York State
Legislature. In 1995, Ontario began providing scientific assistance,
personnel and aircraft to drop vaccine baits in New York counties in the
Niagara and St. Lawrence river areas. Besides its continuing in-kind
assistance, Ontario contributed $125,000 to the Cornell-based vaccine
program in 1996.
Financial assistance from Quebec in 1997 will allow the raccoon vaccination
program to expand strategically to border regions of northern New York and
Vermont, according to Donald Lein, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of the
Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell. However, a truly regional
approach -- treating raccoon rabies in New England and the Northeast and
including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- awaits federal, state and
local support, he noted.
"In one sense, this is still an experiment," said Bigler, who in January
traveled to Texas to aid that state's rabies vaccination program for
coyotes and grey foxes. "We are still collecting data in New York to
evaluate types of baits and the best distribution strategies and densities,
to further improve the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of these programs."
The vaccination program in New York's Niagara County last year, for
example, showed that as few as 50 vaccine baits per square kilometer are
enough to reach a significant percentage of raccoons, she said. Some
previous programs had used more baits, which are distributed from specially
equipped helicopters or from vehicles on the ground.
Explaining why Canada is spending money to treat American wildlife, Bigler
said that raccoon rabies is considered to be a greater threat to human
health than fox rabies because the more numerous raccoons live in closer
association with humans. The annual cost of post-exposure treatment for
people who are exposed to the deadly disease from animals far exceeds
expenditures for preventive immunization of wildlife.
"Canada sees working with us as a better investment than waiting for
raccoon rabies to walk across the border," Bigler said. "We have shown
that we can stop raccoon rabies at the border and even move the vaccinated
disease-free zone southward. Our St. Lawrence barrier has already moved
south since the first application in 1995."
Oral vaccine programs in New York and elsewhere, including Massachusetts'
Cape Cod, are demonstrating the potential for the strategy, Lein said,
predicting: "We can put a noose around raccoon rabies and eliminate this
disease from the Northeast once and for all."
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