[ad_1]
An illegally imported spaniel puppy is housed in a kennel at the Dogs Trust rehousing facility on May 6, 2021, in an unspecified location in the United Kingdom.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is enacting a temporary ban on imported dogs coming into the United States from more than 100 countries, due to the high risk of contracting rabies.
The new policy, as Reuters first reported on Monday, will suspend dog imports from 113 countries from July 14. These countries include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia, Ecuador, Cuba, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, China, and all of them. Which is considered a high risk of rabies. The full list of banned countries can be found here; No countries in the European Union or the United Kingdom are on the list.
Rabies is a dreaded viral disease that is spread through direct contact with the saliva of an infected carrier. This usually occurs through the bite of an infected animal (theoretically, it could spread from a human bite, but this has never been documented). It is almost always fatal to humans and many animals that contract it, including dogs, usually causing first flu-like illness and then confusion, hallucinations, aggression, excessive salivation, and a deep aversion to water. Fortunately, a highly effective rabies vaccine has been available for more than a century—one that can be effective if given soon after exposure to the virus, before symptoms appear, which can take weeks to months.
Historically, dogs infected with rabies were the main source of rabies in humans. But in the United States, dog vaccination programs have led to the local extinction of the canine form of rabies since 2007, and human rabies has almost disappeared with it. Although there are species of wild animals in the United States that can still transmit rabies, the number of annual rabies cases in humans is now in single digits in the United States. Canine rabies remains endemic in many parts of the world, and it is estimated that 59,000 people die from the virus each year globally.
In justifying the ban, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials cite the effects of the pandemic on rabies vaccination programs, with many states stopping these programs for the time being, as well as an increase in fake vaccine cards used to get these dogs out through inspection. In some cases, dogs are left waiting in storage to the point of illness or death after being refused entry due to false documents, in part due to delays in flight schedules that have also been affected by the pandemic.
G/O Media may get commission
“Given the impact that Covid has had on these vaccination programs around the world, we’re not really sure what the rabies landscape will look like in the future,” Emily Beracci, the CDC’s veterinary medical officer, told Reuters.
Despite the long list of banned countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims the policy will have little effect on the total number of imported dogs. Nearly one million dogs are imported into the United States annually, and officials estimate that the ban, which is supposed to last a year, will affect 6% of those imports.
Even though rabies isn’t such a big local threat here anymore, that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. New York City health officials this week announced the start of their annual campaign to vaccinate the city’s wild raccoon residents against rabies by vaccinating them with food crumbs containing fish-scented pollen. These types of programs have been conducted in many countries, including the United States, for decades now, and in New York City since 2014.
.
[ad_2]
Picture Credit!