Published: April 13, 2008 02:30 am            

Rabies incidents have led to concern

Pet owners required by law to have their dogs and cats inoculated

FAIRMONT — Just last week, veterinarian Dr. Jamie Moore got a phone call from a woman who was bitten by a dog while she was riding a bicycle.

“I told her the first thing she needed to do was find out if it had gotten a rabies shot,” said Moore, owner of the Fairmont Veterinary Hospital and a member of the state Board of Veterinary Medicine.

“Sure enough, it hadn’t. Now it has to be quarantined, which will be expensive. This could have been avoided if it had gotten a rabies shot.”

Pet owners are required by law to have their dogs and cats inoculated against the disease.

As the weather warms up, incidents of rabies also can increase. However, West Virginia health officials already have seen two cases that have them somewhat concerned.

The cases also help illustrate the need for the public to get household pets vaccinated and watch out when interacting with wildlife such as raccoons and skunks.

In the incident, members of a herd of cattle in Hampshire County began falling ill in late March. Prior to that, someone had seen a skunk near them. One cow died and was buried.

“After that, two more came down with something and they called a veterinarian,” said Dr. Joe Starcher.

Those animals were killed and their brains sent for testing in South Charleston, the only way to determine if rabies, a neurological disease that causes acute encephalitis and then death, was at the root of the problem. It was.

Eventually, eight of the 85 cattle became sick, and the owner had two choices: Quarantine the rest of the herd for eight months, or put them all down. Running out of food, he chose the latter option, and they were euthanized on April 3.

Also, six people who had come in contact with the livestock had to be given what’s known as “post-exposure prophylaxis,” or a series of vaccinations that would keep them from getting in sick in case they had been infected with the virus, which generally causes death if contracted and not treated.

Then, this past week in Greenbrier County, a goat came down with a case of rabies. The goat had been kept in a pen next to a herd of 20 cattle, which then came under suspicion.

In that case, the owner “has chosen to quarantine them for eight months, rather than put them to sleep,” Starcher said. “He’s going to watch them for eight months.”

As a rural state with thick brush and a healthy dose of wildlife, West Virginia has one of the higher rates in the nation for rabies, officials said. But two incidents so early in the spring has caused concern.

“They’re just getting out and stirring around,” Starcher said. “It’s mating season and it’s early to have this many cases. That’s what concerns me.”

Another aspect that has them perplexed is how so many cattle in Hampshire County were coming down with rabies. Had the skunk bitten each one of them? Had sick members of the herd passed it on?

Some have wondered if just the skunk spraying the herd could have transmitted the rabies, but Starcher noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) has said that does not cause the disease to spread.

“But I would err on the side of caution and try not to get sprayed,” he said.

For people who do not have livestock, rabies becomes relevant to them because they can come in contact with household pets, either their own, a friend’s or even in the neighborhood.

Pets that have not been vaccinated can get the disease from an encounter with a raccoon, skunk or bat, three of the most typical wild animals that can carry the disease.

Plus, health officials also cited incidents of children coming upon a raccoon or skunk that seems dazed and not afraid of humans — which could be a sign of rabies — and wanting to pet it.

Karol Wallingford, environmental health supervisor for the Marion County Health Department, said the department has not had any reports of human cases of rabies in 2007 or 2008.

However, one bat in that time tested positive, she said, and the bat had bitten a person, who then began the post-exposure prophylaxis treatment.

“Bites are reportable to the county heath department, as are any confirmed cases of human rabies,” she said. “We have not had a case of human rabies in the state in a number of years.”

However, Dr. David Henzler, an epidemiologist veterinarian with the state Bureau for Public Heath in the Department of Health and Human Resources, said that 2007 statistics show that 16 people in the state had direct contact with a confirmed rabid animal, and he suspects that number to be higher.

In fact, just in the past two weeks in the state, 10 people have had direct contact with a rabid animal — six in Hampshire County and four in Greenbrier County.

“We get calls nearly every day,” Henzler said. “I do rabies for the state, and weekly, there are people who get post-exposure prophylaxis.”

Fairmont vet Moore, who has gotten vaccinated before as a preventative measure because of his line of work, said the shots are not pleasant.

“It made my arm sore for five or six days in the times I’ve had them,” he said.

The Northern Panhandle and the eastern portion of the state have the most cases of rabies, but officials said North Central West Virginia has its share.

In an effort to keep raccoons and other wild animals from getting rabies, officials will be dropping vaccine baited with food into the wild in targeted areas with the hope that some cases of the disease can be prevented through the inoculation, Henzler said.

He also noted that of the 161 domestic animals tested for rabies exposure in 2007, 42, or one-fourth, came back positive.

“People don’t vaccinate their pets, which we still find surprising,” he said. “Then you increase the risk that you have exposure to people, and then you need the post-exposure prophylaxis.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.

        

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