Disease spreading to dogs in isolated villages
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 16/01) - The number of rabid foxes in the Beaufort Delta is at a peak.
"The Inuvik region has been above average for the last couple of winters," said wildlife veterinarian Brett Elkin.
"We seem to be in a spike right now."
The resources, wildlife and economic development official said the disease peaks correlate with a rise in the fox population.
Since December four foxes and six dogs were found to be rabid. All were killed in Sachs Harbour. The previous winter five foxes that wandered into Inuvik tested positive for rabies.
Bill Wrathall, chief environmental health officer for the region, said preventing human contact with diseased animals is a major concern.
If a human is licked, scratched or bitten by an animal with rabies, and not immunized in time to stop the virus from reaching the central nervous system, the consequences are fatal.
"It is a scary thing with the number of foxes," Wrathall said.
Elkin said every region in the world seems to have animals that serve as reservoir for the disease. In the delta it is the Arctic fox, in Western Canada it is the skunk and in Eastern Canada, the racoon.
Animals with rabies loose fear of people and become either unusually aggressive or tame.
"Which is scary because there are a lot of roaming dogs," Wrathall added. "If a person is bit by a dog they should always go to a health centre to get a vaccination."
Although several people have been treated for possible rabies exposure in the North, the number of confirmed cases in Canada since 1924 is just over 20.
Rabies can only be passed from an animal while the disease is active. Its symptoms include foaming at the mouth and weak hind legs.
Those symptoms were similar to the signs shown by sick dogs in Paulatuk recently. The animals were shot and tested, but it was confirmed that distemper, not rabies, was the cause.
