Floyd County tops in state for animal rabies cases

 

State public health officials have determined that with its recent 15^th confirmed case Floyd County ranks first in Georgia for positive animal rabies cases.   Floyd's fifteen cases comprise two dogs, three foxes and ten raccoons that have tested positive for rabies.  Local public health officials are urging Floyd County residents to take precautions to prevent their pets or themselves from contracting the usually fatal disease.

 

"The best way to prevent rabies is to have your pet vaccinated against it," says Northwest Georgia Public Health Environmental Health Director Tim Allee.  "Get your pet vaccinated against rabies now.  It's the single best way to protect your pet  --  and yourself  --   from rabies," says Allee.  "It's important to do it for their protection, for our protection and because it's state law."

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health's Acute Disease Epidemiology Section, Floyd ranks #1 in the state for positive rabies specimens with fifteen animal cases. Banks and Madison are second with eleven, and Gwinnett is third with ten.

 

Despite its first-place ranking in a category public health officials wish the county never appears at all, Allee say rabies probably isn't any more prevalent in Floyd County than anywhere else in the state.  He suggests Floyd's unusual number of confirmed animal rabies cases may stem from a higher local rate of reporting animal bites and subsequent testing for rabies.  

"We've done a lot of community education on how to protect against rabies, especially working with local veterinarians, and it could be this is paying off in increased reporting of animal bites, Allee speculates.  "We wish it would also pay off with increased pet vaccination rates."   

"We know our pets can be infected when they're bitten by rabid wild animals," says Floyd County Health Department Environmental Health Manager Mike Pitts.   "This can cause 'spillover' rabies in domestic animals and increases the risk to humans.  We require pets to be vaccinated against rabies to prevent them from acquiring the disease from wildlife and transmitting it to us," Pitts said. "The rabies vaccination protects us as well as our pets."

Pitts urges 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