The control of raccoon rabies in Ontario Canada: proactive and reactive tactics, 1994-2007.

Proactive and reactive tactics have been utilized in Ontario, Canada, to prevent raccoon rabies from becoming established. A total of 96,621 raccoons (Procyon lotor) and 7,967 striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) were live captured using 1,221,044 trap nights, vaccinated against rabies by injection, and released, during proactive Trap-Vaccinate-Release (TVR) programs in southern Ontario during 1994-2007. During those years, on average, 43% to 83% of the raccoon populations were vaccinated against rabies. In addition, 20,129 raccoons and 2,735 skunks were vaccinated against rabies, and 8,311 raccoons and 1,449 skunks were euthanized, using 576,359 trap nights, during reactive Point Infection Control (PIC) operations in eastern Ontario during 1999-2005. A significant correlation was detected between trapping effort and the percentage of the raccoon population that was vaccinated. Between 1999 and 2007, 132 cases of raccoon variant rabies (130 raccoons, two striped skunks) were reported in eastern Ontario. The last case occurred on 23 September 2005 with Ontario being free of reported raccoon rabies to 10 November 2008, proving that TVR and PIC are effective tactics for the control of this disease.

Elimination of arctic variant rabies in red foxes, metropolitan Toronto.

To control the Arctic variant of rabies virus in red foxes, 332,257 bait doses containing live, attenuated Evelyn-Rokitnicki-Abelseth rabies vaccine were distributed in greater metropolitan Toronto during 1989-1999. Human and pet contact with bait was minimal, and no adverse reactions to the vaccine were noted. Significantly fewer rabid foxes were found during the 17 years after fox baiting (5 cases during 1990-2006) than in the 17 years before (96 cases during 1973-1989). The last report of a rabid fox in metropolitan Toronto was in 1996 (reporting period through September 2006), which confirms that distributing oral rabies vaccine bait is a feasible tactic for the control of rabies in foxes in urban environments.

A molecular epidemiological analysis of the incursion of the raccoon strain of rabies virus into Canada.

Three physically separate incursions of the raccoon strain of rabies have entered Canada, two into eastern Ontario in 1999 and one into New Brunswick in 2000. The course of these epizootics is described. Phylogenetic analysis of the index cases from these two provinces with raccoon rabies viruses representative of this strain in the United States supported the independence of these incursions into Canada via cross-border transmission from the United States. Genetic characterization of 190 isolates from these two Canadian provinces over a 550-bp region of the variable central portion of the viral P gene distinguished 14 variants in Ontario and five in New Brunswick although in both regions the variant represented by the initial case was most commonly encountered. The quasi-species nature of the Ontario virus was analysed using isolates taken at different times during the main outbreak to examine whether viral variation was increasing with time as well as changing in nature. These data provide a framework for study of future incursions of this rabies strain into Canada.

Just one baby.

PIP: A 17-year-old pro-choice activist relates the experiences of a day spent outside of an abortion clinic trying to persuade women to forego the procedure. After 3 weeks, she had been unable to avert a single abortion, but on this day she made a special prayer to save just one baby, and she was successful in counseling a mother to take advantage of the resources offered to help her keep her baby. The pro-choice activist recalls her thoughts and feelings 7 months later when she met the baby.^ieng