Nineteen animals tested positive for rabies in Ontario in August – the highest number of any month this year.
New data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency shows that August brought the province 10 confirmed cases of rabies in raccoons, six in bats and three in skunks.
Most of the animals were found in and around Hamilton. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health reported one rabid bat in Guelph.
Through the first eight months of 2017, there have been 107 positive tests for rabies in Ontario, or an average of about 13 cases per month.
Hamilton has been considered ground zero for Ontario’s rabies outbreak, which began in late 2015 when a raccoon got into a fight with two dogs in an animal control van in that city.
Since then, hundreds of animals have tested positive for raccoon-strain rabies, in an area stretching as far west as Brant County.
There have also been several positive tests for fox-strain rabies in the same timeframe, in an area stretching from Wallenstein to Blyth.
Ontario has seen no known cases of rabies in humans during the outbreak.
Six bats testing positive for rabies, as happened in August, is unusual in Ontario. The virus had been found in four bats in the province between January and July.
The province’s attempts to fight the rabies outbreak have included hundreds of thousands of bait packets containing the rabies vaccine being airdropped and hand-delivered to parts of the province frequented by wild animals.
Rabies can be spread between mammals through contact with infected animals. It is typically fatal.
