Grey Bruce continues to be a hot spot province-wide for rabies.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit says while rabies is on the decline across Ontario with a record low of 50 confirmed cases last year, 10 of those cases or 20 per cent were in Grey Bruce.
Rabies Program Manager Andrew Barton says already this year there has been 6 lab-confirmed rabid animal reports in Grey Bruce and it looks like we will lead the provincial numbers again.
Barton also points out that all 6 cases so far this year have been skunks while last year we also saw 6 rabid skunks, plus 2 foxes, 1 bat, and 1 cattle.
He says the Ministry of Natural Resources has only recently introduced a vaccine bait for skunks.
Barton says it should prove to be successful in a few years, as was a vaccine bait program for foxes started in 1998.
Barton says there are many reasons we continue to see rabies in Grey Bruce including the fact that the region is so large and mainly rural.
Barton says in the grand scheme, rabies is very well controlled in Grey Bruce compared to some areas of the world where thousands of people still die from the disease every year.
He also notes that the numbers are declining – in 1990 Grey Bruce had 243 cases out of over 18 hundred cases province-wide.
But he says rabies continues to be a significant concern and is something that local residents should still keep in mind and make sure to get their pets vaccinated.
