CDC Declares USA Canine-Rabies Free?

[Sweet72947]

I know this article is from Sept 2007, but this makes me confused. Didn't somebody on this board post about rabies being found in pups from a flea market?

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/press...07/r070907.htm

[Lilavati]

Originally Posted by Sweet72947

I know this article is from Sept 2007, but this makes me confused. Didn't somebody on this board post about rabies being found in pups from a flea market?

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/press...07/r070907.htm

I believe that was in Canada . . . and besides . . . this doesn't mean dogs don't get rabies . . . it just means that the strain passed from dog to dog is gone . . . they can still get it from wild animals.

[Sweet72947]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Lilavati]

To amend that, the best way to put what it means is that in the US, dogs are not a reservoir for rabies. They can catch it, and they can pass it on, but dogs, as a group, are no longer a source of rabies in this country, the way they still are in, say, India.

It also means that wide-spread vaccination has worked. Not that we can stop doing rabies vaccination (just recently a raccoon torn up a border collie around here . . . we don't know if it was rabid, but everyone was glad that dog was vaccinated). But we have taken a disease endemic to dogs, so much so that it was sometimes called 'dog-madness', and wiped out its natural occurance from those hosts. Its a reason to cheer.

[Sweet72947]

*cheers*