Rabies vaccine distributed in Toronto

[Catherine]

The city and the province have set up a program to distribute the rabies vaccine in Westen Toronto and in some of the areas around the city. This is being done as a precaution to prevent the spread of rabies.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ra...-1.4196321


This is a bit worrying since I live in the target area. They must feel there is a risk.
It is also encouraging. There are no cases of rabies in the city, but we are going to vaccinate and protect the wildlife and ultimately protect our selves.
 
http://globalnews.ca/news/3590960/wildli...f-toronto/

Rabies is so hard to eradicate. All we can do, is keep fighting it and prevent it with proper vaccinations.
Certainly no pet should be at risk. There is vaccine available anywhere.

[Tobi]

I wonder if a case of rabies was found in another area, and they are distributing the vaccine in Toronto as a special precaution? It may not mean a rabies case has actually been found in Toronto....but I wouldn't necessarily trust the media to report such a thing because governments are very scared of people panicking! So maybe we don't have the full picture.
From what you report, Catherine, it seems that Toronto is quite well-organised generally. The last thing the city would want is a rabies alert.
Anyway, distributing the vaccine to wildlife is always a sensible idea. But that must be such a big task!

[Catherine]

There have been raccoon rabies cases in Hamilton. Hamilton is not far from Toronto. It is on the same lake(Lake Ontario is a BIG lake), but around the tip of it so they are south west of us. If they can vaccinate the animals on the western half of Toronto they will provide a wall of protection. If an infected raccoon makes it this far he won't be able to infect any other raccoons because they will be immune.

It should be possible to wipe out rabies through mass vaccination programs. In a way that is what this is.
To end rabies globally there would need to be a much bigger effort. It could be done. We did it for small pox. It would be worth the effort because rabies is such a nasty way for anyone to die and it is almost 100% fatal.

Toronto can act quickly when it needs to. If this was a transit project they would still be discussing it years from now and getting nowhere.