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Is Margate Rabies-free?
• Broward County bait program works
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Monday,
July 13, 2009
The chances of encountering a rabid animal in Margate are slim to none. Unlike the 60-year-old man recently bitten by a rabid fox in Boca’s South Beach Park, we’re more fortunate here in Margate.
Not only do we have our own animal control department in the city, Margate animal control officers have laid about 1,000 baits so far this year as part of a countywide effort to orally vaccinate raccoons, feral cats and foxes from rabies.
Broward County’s Oral Rabies Vaccine Program (ORVP) started in March 2005 and ends this year, according to Broward animal control officials.
In Margate, rabies baits – a hard, square pellet of fish meal filled with rabies vaccine and sealed in a polymer pouch – are placed near Margate waterways and heavily wooded areas where raccoons are seen regularly. The animal tears the pouch, eats the fish meal and “Voila!” it swallows the rabies vaccine.
According to Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control Operations Manager, Captain David Walesky, the rabid fox that attacked Boca residents in area parks last Thursday was diagnosed with the strain of rabies common to raccoons, the least deadly strain if treated in a timely manner. Raccoons account for two-thirds of the 3,753 confirmed cases of rabies in Florida in the past 20 years.
Walesky was sure to say, however, that rabies is deadly in just about every case if left untreated.
Deadlier strains of rabies include the bat strain (considered most deadly) and the canine strain, which is all but eradicated from U.S. soil, say experts. Two Florida men died in 1994 and 1996 as a result of canine rabies, but from rabid dog bites in Mexico and Haiti before returning to the states.
Unlike Broward, Palm Beach County doesn’t bait for rabies, said Walesky. The baits cost about a $1.50 each and the program is cost prohibitive when addressing all the uninhabited wooded areas of the county. Palm Beach Animal Care & Control addresses rabies on a case-by-cases basis.
Palm Beach County had a surge in rabies, peaking in 2003 with 34 confirmed cases – vs. Broward’s two confirmed cases that same year.
Broward’s ten-year rabies peak was in 2002 with 11 confirmed incidents: 2 from fox, 7 from raccoon and 2 from bats. Zero cases of rabies were reported in Broward in 2007 and one case was reported in 2008.
Margate animal control officials are convinced that ORVP has been effective in defending Margate residents against rabid animals.
No more shots to the abdomen
A long series of painful shots to the stomach is no longer the treatment for rabies. The majority of “post exposure’ treatments consist of five injections to the arm and should be administered within 14 days of being bitten or licked by an infected animal, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This modern day prophylaxis for rabies has proven 100 percent effective.
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