Dan & Becky Snyder Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:24 pm Post subject: Rabies Update from PDA Two Calves with Rabies Two six-week-old Holstein calves from Lancaster County were reported positive for rabies at the PA Vet Lab on March 30. Both calves were born on the same farm on the same day, and both were killed on the same day after both animals began to exhibit signs of disease suggestive of rabies. The owner mentioned a ‘sick’ skunk was killed on the farm several weeks ago, but the skunk was never tested for rabies. It is unusual for both animals to incubate the disease at exactly the same rate, and PVL seldom reports multiple animals from the same farm positive for rabies. Multiple bovine rabies cases on single farms have occurred twice prior to this incident in PA. The first was in 1987 when three Angus feedlot steers were positive on one farm in Mercer County - one in October and then two in December. These three were confirmed as Eastern Raccoon strain of rabies. Three more bovines were positive on a farm in Greene County in March of 1988. A one-year-old Hereford heifer and a two-year-old Holstein/Hereford female were reported at PVL, and a third was positive at Lionville. Note that these were peak years for rabies in PA leading up to 1989 which was the highest year for rabies in the last 50 years. Excerpt from weekly report of the Bureau of Animal Health. For more information about rabies: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0001.html http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Epidemiology/Epidemiology.htm Testing for rabies is free at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture laboratories. For more information, please call the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture office at 814-332-6890.

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Monday, July 16, 2007