Word: raccoons
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Because of a rise in raccoon sitings and cases of rabies, Harvard's Department of Environmental Health and Safety is warning members of the Harvard community to avoid all contact with the animals...
...spokesperson from the Massachusetts Department of public Health called the spread of raccoon rabies "a serious public health concern. He added, however, that there is no reason for a panic...
Humans may be partly to blame. In 1977, according to one theory, Virginia's hunters felt there was a shortage of raccoons in the region. As a result, perhaps several thousand raccoons were imported both legally and illegally from Southeastern states, and some of those animals apparently harbored rabies. Since then, raccoon rabies has been moving outward from Virginia and West Virginia at a rate of 25 to 40 miles a year and has invaded all Northeastern states except Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. In New York, which now leads the nation in animal-rabies cases (1,761 last year...
Destroying animals, of course, is no way to control the disease. About 60% of the raccoon population would have to be eliminated before the virus would be curbed. A better idea, says CDC's Rupprecht, is to vaccinate wild animals, just as pets are given protection. He helped develop an experimental oral vaccine for raccoons as a research veterinarian at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University and the Wistar Institute, a biomedical research center. The vaccine is contained in bait and dropped into areas where raccoons roam. In tests done in New Jersey, the animals ate the bait, and many...
...watched for 10 days. When confronted with a wild animal behaving unnaturally, people should resist the impulse to help and should notify the police. In fact, all wildlife should be observed from a distance. Says Dr. Mark Chassin, New York State health commissioner: "If a nocturnal animal like a raccoon is on a main street at noon in New York, one should assume it's rabid...