Media release: With Floyd County experiencing a recent uptick in confirmed animal rabies cases, eight so far this year, local pet owners took advantage of the special low fee and the convenience of a Saturday afternoon visit to the Floyd County Health Department to get their dog or cat a rabies vaccination, the single best precaution against getting rabies. "We gave 294 rabies vaccinations at our clinic last Saturday," said Floyd County Health Department Environmental Health Manager, Mike Pitts, adding "our veterinarian partners who generously volunteered their time actually administered the shots."
Participating in the clinic, hosted by Floyd County Public Health and Floyd County Animal Control, were veterinarians from Culbreth-Carr-Watson Animal Clinic, East Rome Animal Clinic, Mt. Berry Animal Hospital and Berry College. Combined with 30 rabies vaccinations given at recent spay/neuter clinics hosted by Floyd County Animal Control, "that's over 300 Floyd County pets that have been vaccinated against rabies."
Pitts said another rabies vaccination would be scheduled in the fall, but encouraged pet owners not to wait. "Get your pet vaccinated against rabies now. It's the single best way to protect your pet from rabies," Pitts said. "It's important to do it for their protection, for our protection and because it's state law.
Although most rabies cases occur in wildlife, most humans are given rabies vaccine as a result of exposure to rabid domestic animals, according to Pitts. "While wildlife are more likely to be rabid than are domestic animals, the amount of human contact with domestic animals greatly exceeds the amount of contact with wildlife."
"Your pets can be infected when they are bitten by rabid wild animals," Pitts said. "When 'spillover' rabies occurs in domestic animals, the risk to humans is increased. We require pets to be vaccinated against rabies to prevent them from acquiring the disease from wildlife and possibly transmitting it to you," Pitts said. "The rabies vaccination protects you, too."
Pitts encouraged people with pets to:
· visit your veterinarian with your pet on a regular basis and keep rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets, and dogs,
· maintain control of your pets by keeping cats and ferrets indoors and keeping dogs under direct supervision,
· spay or neuter your pets to help reduce the number of unwanted pets that may not be properly cared for or vaccinated regularly and
· call animal control to remove all stray animals from your neighborhood since these animals may be unvaccinated or ill.
For more information about rabies, contact the Floyd County Health Department at 706-295-6316 or visit http://www.cdc.gov/rabies
