Rabies

[SkySoaringMagpie]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/health-experts-say-australia-must-brace-for-rabies-arrival-from-indonesia/story-e6frg8y6-1226235103495

EXPERTS battling a rabies epidemic in Bali are warning Australians to brace for the arrival of the disease.

Rabies is island-hopping towards Australia through the Indonesian archipelago and is about 600km north of Darwin on the island of Pulau Larat, where it killed 19 people in 2010.

Helen Scott Orr, a former NSW chief veterinary officer working with the Indonesian government to help eradicate rabies from Bali, said the risk to Australia was increasing as more Indonesian islands fell to the disease.

Rabies has spread to 24 of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

"If it gets into West Papua, it is strongly likely that it will spread slowly and inexorably down through the entire island of Papua New Guinea, in which case it would be extremely close to our borders across the Torres Strait," Dr Scott Orr said.

"We don't know if the threat will be there in one year, in five years, in 10 years, or in 20 years -- it's just a likelihood that the threat will come."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry -- which oversees the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy -- said rabies outbreaks on the Indonesian islands of Flores, Bali, Pulau Larat and Ambon had increased the risk of the disease entering Australia.

She said the "most likely potential pathway into remote northern Australia is an illegally imported, infected animal arriving by boat".

She said the department was controlling border movements of animals across the Torres Strait, increasing surveillance of animal health and educating northern populations about the disease.

Dr Scott Orr fears that indigenous communities will be hardest hit if rabies crosses Torres Strait.

"I understand that in northern Australia there are many indigenous communities with quite large groups of semi-free-living dogs that aren't restrained and roam around," Dr Scott Orr said.

"Those dogs, if they became infected, obviously would become a threat to the communities, to the safety of all the people in those communities. It's a terrible and terrifying disease when it occurs."

Rabies kills at least 55,000 people worldwide a year. Experts suspect that a rabid dog brought on a fishing boat from Sulawesi or Flores islands introduced the disease to Bali, where it has killed more than 130 people since 2008.

Teams of dog catchers from Bali Animal Welfare Association have worked with the Indonesian government to vaccinate more than 275,000 canines -- a costly exercise that attracted funding from the Australian government's AusAID program and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

BAWA director Janice Girardi said Australia's eagerness to support the vaccination program was motivated partly by humanitarian concern, but also as insurance to keep rabies clear of its borders.

"There's no rabies in Australia other than bat rabies, so I know it's a huge concern for Australia should rabies arrive on boats from the Indonesian islands," she said.

Dr Scott Orr believes Australia's best hope of remaining rabies-free is by helping our northern neighbours control the disease.

"We would like to see it progressively eradicated from eastern Indonesia and pushed back and right out of the region, if we could," she said.

"If rabies got established in the wild dog population in northern Australia, for example, there would need to be a very sustained campaign to eradicate it. And experience from around the world has shown that to eradicate it from feral or wild populations of animals, you need to have aerial distribution of vaccine by baits.

"Doing that across a large part of Northern Australia would be a horrendously expensive and difficult and long-term operation."

[~Anne~]

I hope it doesn't make it here.

[sandgrubber]

Scary!

I don't understand the statement: "There's no rabies in Australia other than bat rabies . . ."

In the US, bats get the same rabies as all other mammals, and picking up a sick bat is one of the most common way the disease is transmitted to humans. Is 'bat rabies' just baby talk for Hendra virus?

The Torres Straight is only about 150 km wide and has islands in it's middle. I'd think transmission by bat would be a real concern.

[Jumabaar]

Scary!

I don't understand the statement: "There's no rabies in Australia other than bat rabies . . ."

In the US, bats get the same rabies as all other mammals, and picking up a sick bat is one of the most common way the disease is transmitted to humans. Is 'bat rabies' just baby talk for Hendra virus?

The Torres Straight is only about 150 km wide and has islands in it's middle. I'd think transmission by bat would be a real concern.

Bats have Australian Bat Lyssavirus. It is not the same as rabies, but does cross react with the vaccine.

[Chris the Rebel Wolf]

That is scary. I wonder if there are other precautions being taken; if the vaccine for Rabies can be stored and will be available in Australia quickly, should the disease reach our shores.

I don't think you can, truly, 'push back' rabies out of an area. Any warm-blooded animal including humans can be infected and pass it on, although there are certainly species who are more prone than others to passing it along. Hopefully it can be contained though.

[SparkyTansy]

Very scary

[Tempus Fugit]

That is scary. I wonder if there are other precautions being taken; if the vaccine for Rabies can be stored and will be available in Australia quickly, should the disease reach our shores.

I don't think you can, truly, 'push back' rabies out of an area. Any warm-blooded animal including humans can be infected and pass it on, although there are certainly species who are more prone than others to passing it along. Hopefully it can be contained though.

As far as I am aware, the federal Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (under which AQIS comes) has a biosecurity plan to deal with rabies outbreaks, although it is probably classified. There are special provisions, for example for persons from a rabies endemic country like the USA to bring their disability assistance dogs into Australia.

[BJean]

What's funny, is that Australia has this perception it is disease free and necessitating OTT quarantine procedures,

while the hush hush hendra playing out in Queensland

resulted in dogs from Australia not only being banned outright from entering Malaysia,

but banned from traveling on any plane that may leave Australia and subsequently go on Malaysia at a later date.

To go to China:

3. dogs and cats from Australia must proceed from farms where, for the past six months, has not been contaminated by Hendra Virus and have been put into quarantine in places designated by the Australian government for 28 days, been tested for two times with negative responses, and without any symptoms of Hendra Virus.

Edited January 10, 2012 by lilli

[sandgrubber]

That is scary. I wonder if there are other precautions being taken; if the vaccine for Rabies can be stored and will be available in Australia quickly, should the disease reach our shores.

I don't think you can, truly, 'push back' rabies out of an area. Any warm-blooded animal including humans can be infected and pass it on, although there are certainly species who are more prone than others to passing it along. Hopefully it can be contained though.

As far as I am aware, the federal Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (under which AQIS comes) has a biosecurity plan to deal with rabies outbreaks, although it is probably classified. There are special provisions, for example for persons from a rabies endemic country like the USA to bring their disability assistance dogs into Australia.

So much rabies vaccine is made, under well controlled manufacturing processes, worldwide that it is merely an administrative issue to get the vaccine to treat all pets in Australia. I'd hope the bureaucracy could get off its butt in a real emergency. I think the big threat is to native animals.