While Ontario’s rabies outbreaks appear to be slowly winding down, cases of the disease continue to pop up in our part of the province.
New figures from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency show that there were eight confirmed cases of the virus in Ontario in January – three in bats, three in raccoons and two in skunks.
That number is below the 2017 average of 12.4 rabies cases per month, which itself was down significantly from the 2016 monthly average of 24 cases.
A rabies outbreak began in late 2016, after a raccoon that had been fighting with two dogs in an animal control van was diagnosed with the virus.
Hundreds of rabid animals have been found since then, with the vast majority being in and around Hamilton, where the outbreak originated.
A second rabies outbreak – this one being fox-strain rather than raccoon-strain – has affected about a dozen animals in Huron-Perth and Waterloo Region.
Data provided by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry shows that there have been three local cases of rabies since 2018 began.
Two of those cases – one in Brant County near Mount Pleasant and one in Norfolk County north of Waterford – have been raccoon-strain. A fox-strain case has also been reported in Huron County, east of Blyth.
While there were eight rabid animals found in Ontario in January, the rest of Canada saw six cases of the virus.
