2006 Rabies Annual Summary
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Director, Rabies Laboratory
Richard Raczkowski:
Asst. Director, Rabies Laboratory
518-869-4527
Please contact us (518-869-4527) for data tables and image maps in an alternate format.
- Introduction
- Rabies Distribution
- Rabies in Bats
- Human Exposures to Rabid Animals
- New York City
- Rabies Serology
- 2006 Raccoon Rabies Map (GIF 48K)
- 2006 Bat Rabies Map (GIF 48K)
- 2006 Rabies Incidence Map (PDF 132K)
- Additional 2006 Rabies Data
Introduction
On March 16, 2006, sixteen years after the raccoon rabies virus variant first entered New York State, Suffolk County became the 61st of the 62 counties in New York State to experience raccoon rabies. In New York City, all five boroughs have dealt with raccoon rabies, albeit Brooklyn's single case in 2001 was a rabid cat determined to be infected with the raccoon variant of rabies virus. Franklin County is the only county in New York State with no documented case of raccoon rabies, possibly due to the wildlife rabies vaccination program in neighboring counties.
Rabies Distribution
There were 612 rabid animals diagnosed at the Wadsworth Center laboratory in 2006, representing 6.9% of all animals tested during the year. This total included 320 raccoons, which was 23.7% of all raccoons examined during the year (raccoon positivity rate). Also included were: 127 bats (bat positivity rate of 3.1%); 95 skunks (31.4%); 25 cats (1.7%); 25 gray fox (22.3%); 6 red fox (10.5%); 6 cattle (6.2%); 4 woodchucks (4.3%); 2 horses (5%) ;1 dog (0.14%) and 1 otter (100%). The 127 rabid bats is the largest number of rabid bats diagnosed in a single year by the Wadsworth laboratory, yet the 3.1% positivity rate is lower than the average of the past 20 years (3.4%).
The Wadsworth Center laboratory tested 8,928 animals in 2006. This is an increase of 610 specimens over 2005 submissions, and is 5.2% greater than the average yearly submissions for the previous five year period. These specimens consisted of 6,491 wild animals (73% of total) and 2,437 domestic animals (27%) and were comprised of over 50 species of animals. These included 4,145 bats (46.4% of all animals tested), 1,502 cats (16.8%), 1,349 raccoons (15.1%), 695 dogs (7.8%), 334 other wild species (3.7%), 303 skunks (3.4%), 240 rodents and lagomorphs (2.7%), 172 foxes (1.9%), 97 cattle (1.1%) and 91 other domestic animals (1.0%). In 35.4% of all animals tested there was either a bite to a human, or human contact with saliva or nervous tissue from the suspect animal.
Human Exposures to Rabid Animals
In 24.5% of the animal rabies cases there was a reported human exposure, including 59 bites to humans and an additional 91 other direct human contacts with saliva or nervous tissue from the 612 laboratory-confirmed rabid animals. As in previous years, rabid gray foxes demonstrated extreme aggressiveness with 38.7% of the 31 positive foxes inflicting a bite to one or more humans. This is in contrast to 4.4% of the 320 rabid raccoons and 10.2% of the 127 rabid bats having bitten one or more humans in 2006. In 57.6% of the cases of rabid animals there was some reported exposure to a domestic animal, certainly underscoring the importance of pet vaccination.
Rabies in Bats
The 4,145 bats tested during 2006 ranks second in number only to the 4,564 bats examined in 2000. The number of each bat taxa examined and positivity rate amongst that species of bat tested in 2006 is: 2,919 big brown bats (3.9%), 986 little brown bats (0.80%), 54 silver-haired bats (0%), 50 red bats (4%), 49 unidentified (0%), 43 hoary bats (2.3%), 43 northern long-eared bat (4.7%) and one pipistrelle bat (0%). The common, commensal big brown bat accounted for 114 (90%) of the 127 rabid bats detected in New York State during 2006.
New York City
During 2006 the rabies diagnostic laboratory at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene examined 821 specimens, including 315 raccoons, 227 cats, 109 dogs, 90 opossum, 59 bats, 15 skunks, 3 muskrats, 1 ferret, 1 groundhog, and 1 rabbit. This is a 55% increase over the specimens tested in 2005. Among these animals 44 (5.4%) were positive for rabies, including 36 raccoons, 4 cats, 2 bats and 2 skunks.
Rabies Serology
The Wadsworth Center rabies laboratory tested 2,147 human sera for rabies virus neutralizing antibody. These tests generally are performed to determine the need for booster vaccinations for individuals wishing to maintain current rabies pre-exposure vaccination status. The laboratory also examined 1,216 raccoon sera for rabies antibody in support of wildlife rabies vaccination programs including largely the oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of raccoon populations. The laboratory also performed 138 virus-variant typings using a panel of monoclonal antibodies directed against the rabies virus nucleocapsid protein to aid in the study of rabies epizootiology in the state.
(New York City Health Department data provided by Dr. Maria Paz Carlos)