A raccoon rabies epidemic in the greater Montreal region is causing the province to launch a vaccination campaign in 32 municipalities in the Montérégie.
That includes Brossard, Longueuil and Boucherville, where wildlife professionals will capture raccoons and skunks, inject them with the rabies vaccine and release them.
CityNews learned more about the campaign from Marianne Gagnier, the Quebec Environment Ministry’s coordinator for rabies surveillance.
What is this campaign for and why exactly has the ministry decided that it was necessary now?
We, first of all, want to say we’ve been doing some operations previously this year. We did some vaccine-based distribution in the spring, in 45 municipalities of 55 municipalities of Estrie and Montérégie region. And this campaign is to make sure we’re trying right now to protect the raccoon rabies, to move towards highly populated areas of the south of Montreal and on Montreal Island as well. So we’re trying to do a vaccination barrier by capturing those raccoons, giving them a shot, a vaccine, and releasing them. So that way, we want to really prevent the movement of the rabies on the south shore of Montreal. Currently, cases are more in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu area, as well as Mont-Saint-Hilaire, some cases have been detected. So it’s not yet in the Montreal South Shore, although that’s what we want to prevent.
What are the goals of this operation and how large do you think it will be?
Right now, we have a territory of 750 kilometres square that covers the territory of 32 municipalities in the Montérégie region. And we have 25 teams that are going to be doing that capturing, trapping those raccoons, vaccinating them, and releasing them. And we’re going to do that for 15 days. On the 23rd of June, we’ll be done.
And we’re hoping to be able to catch as many raccoons as possible, so that way we’ll be able to protect the entry of the disease in the more densely populated areas of the South Shore of Montreal.
Is this a routine operation, or was there anything that changed in recent weeks that raised the alarm bells for this to happen?
Since the spring, we’ve had cases of raccoon rabies that have been found in areas that rabies hasn’t been found before. So it’s kind of a progression. The outbreak is kind of spreading right now towards Mont-Saint-Hilaire. We had cases on the west side of the Richelieu River as well in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. So that’s what triggered a bit that kind of operation. It’s not a standard operation. The last time we did that was about 20 years ago.
So now we just want to add to the vaccination campaign we did by distributing vaccine baits.
We want to add to this and try to vaccinate the raccoons, make sure they are immunized against rabies and release them. So that way they’re going to all the raccoons, vaccinate, and call it a barrier, a vaccination barrier. And it’s going to prevent the disease to hopefully want to prevent it to reach the south shore of Montreal and Montreal Island as well.
What kind of level of vaccination coverage are you looking for? What do you need before you can start slowing the outbreak?
It’s tough to say. It depends. We know that from previous studies that we have to reach not only by vaccination, by injection, but as well with the vaccine baits.
We need to reach about 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the animals vaccinated to be able to stop the progression. So obviously, since cases are still spreading, we haven’t reached that level yet. But we’re hoping at least with that area we’ve got, that 750 kilometres square, we’ll be covering around the South Shore of Montreal, we’ll be able to reach that level and protect the movement of the disease towards Montreal.
And also, we kind of found on the field when we do some work and we chat with the public, we’ve noticed that some people are not aware right now that there’s a ban on transporting wild animals like raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes when they’re alive. You cannot move them right now.
They cannot be moved one or two kilometres away because it’s to prevent any spreading of the disease on the landscape. So we’re asking the public to collaborate and make sure they respect this ban
We feel that there’s some big movement of animals that have occurred lately and created some progression of the disease on the territory.
If you’re a family in one of the areas in which the campaign is taking place and you have, for example, pets or children, what’s the one thing you want them to understand about the outbreak right now?
Stay away from wild animals, even if they’re cute. If they seem harmless, just leave them alone. Stay away, observe them from a distance. That’s the basic rule to respect. Avoid feeding them, trying to not touch them. But in case there’s a contact, let’s say an animal that bit you or licked you or something like that, the contact with the saliva, it’s to wash the wound or the side of the contact with water and soap for 10 to 15 minutes. And then you call Info Santé at 811 to seek medical attention. So that’s the main rule. And then if you have pets, it’s make sure that they’re vaccinated because rabies can be present right now in a lot of areas in Estrie and Montérégie, as well as elsewhere in the province, there’s always a risk of rabies in bats. So it’s a good way to have your pets vaccinated. And do not transport wild animals, live raccoons, fox coyotes. You can move the disease on the territory right now on the landscape and it’s prohibited. So make sure you respect that rule.
How likely is it that, for example, raccoon rabies could reach the island of Montreal?
There’s still the St. Lawrence River that should be preventing naturally a spread by movement of animals, although they could use human structures to cross the river, they could use bridges.
There’s a lot of bridges. They can also, we hope it’s not gonna happen, but people could be moving animals around and moving infected animals elsewhere and it could happen on the island.
So it’s not that likely, but we just wanna make sure we put all the efforts to prevent any entry on the island of Montreal.
Because on the island of Montreal, and we’re doing all this to protect human health. Because it’s a serious threat for human health, rabies, and in Montreal, there’s a lot of people and a lot of cats, a lot of dogs, so we wanna make sure it’s not reaching the Island of Montreal.
