Control Efforts

Provincial Efforts to Combat Wildlife Rabies

Ontario can be thankful for the protection we have from the viral disease called rabies. We now have one of the lowest incidences of this killing disease in North or South America. The Rabies Research and Development Unit (RRDU) of Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has strategically attacked the rabies virus by developing both vaccines and methods of delivering the vaccine to our wildlife. Wildlife, such as fox, eat the bait which then vaccinates the animal, minimizing its chances of catching the rabies virus from other wildlife. Two primary methods are used to vaccinate Ontario’s wildlife: distribution of vaccine baits (by airplane, helicopter and by hand), and a trap-vaccinate-release program.

Rabies is often transmitted to humans through our own pets who have come in contact with wild animals carrying the rabies virus. Foxes, raccoons, skunks and bats are the major transmitters of the rabies virus in Canada and the United States.

The RRDU has spent the past 40 years in a campaign to better understand the disease and eliminate rabies carried by raccoons, foxes and skunks from the province. Ontario’s incidence of rabies in fox has been reduced from thousands of cases a year to almost none over the past few years.

Raccoon rabies has been a major public health hazard to our American neighbours since the 1940s. In July 1999, Ontario had its first case of raccoon rabies, but the RRDU had been preparing for this invasion for several years.  That preparation and the control efforts to date have helped stop the spread of raccoon rabies in Ontario.

The RRDU and MNR provides wildlife rabies immunization control expertise to our neighbours in the US, Quebec, Newfoundland and New Brunswick to help them reduce the spread of the rabies virus from raccoons and foxes.

To showcase our successes and assist our partner nations,  the Ministry’s office in Peterborough hosted the 2001 International Meeting on Advances in Rabies Research and Control in the Americas.

View our rabies awareness fact sheets on this site for additional information about the Ministry’s co-operative efforts on our piece of the rabies puzzle.

Mandate

The mandate of the Rabies Research and Development Unit is the research, control and eradication of rabies from terrestrial wildlife in Ontario. This is accomplished through: 

1. development of effective and efficient baits, vaccines and bait delivery systems
2. understanding rabies and rabies vectors
3. modeling rabies outbreaks
4. active involvement in international technology and information exchange on rabies research and control
5. work with other Ministries to ensure Ontario's publics are aware of rabies and their role in preventing its spread