August and September each brought Ontario more positive tests of rabies in bats than the first seven months of 2017 combined.
New data from Statistics Canada shows that five bats tested positive for the disease in September. There had been 10 positive tests year-to-date as of Aug. 31, with six of those occurring in August.
In 2016, there were 29 rabid bats found in the province. In 2015, before the ongoing rabies outbreak was discovered, there were 13.
There were 11 positive rabies diagnoses in Ontario in September in total, slightly below the province’s average this year. In addition to the bats, the tally included five raccoons and one skunk.
As of Sept. 30, there have been a total of 118 rabid animals found in Ontario this year. The rest of Canada has seen 69 cases, although far fewer animals have been submitted for testing outside Ontario.
The province has been in the midst of a rabies outbreak since late 2015, when the virus was found in a raccoon that had somehow made its way from New York state to Hamilton.
There have been no human cases of rabies reported during the outbreak.
