Rabies Surveillance as of December 23rd, 2020

As reported by the Wildlife Research and Monitoring Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry:

We are currently at 480 cases of raccoon strain, and 21 cases of fox strain rabies in Ontario to date.

This marks the end of the calendar year for MNRF’s rabies program. In 2020, there were 9 raccoon strain and 0 fox strain rabies cases detected in southern Ontario, a ~60% decrease in rabies cases from 2019. In 2020, we tested 3,358 samples for rabies. Surveillance of this scale, especially this year, would not be possible without our partners – your on-going support and collaboration is much appreciated and is critical to the continuing success of rabies control efforts in the province.

The rabies lab will continue to test priority samples as a provincial essential service. MNRF’s rabies lab will be closed for the holidays from December 24th until January 4th. We will resume testing in early January.

Annual Summaries

Numbers in red in all tables are fox strain.

Numbers in black in all tables are raccoon strain.

2020

County Raccoon Skunk Fox Cat Bovine Dog Total
Brant 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Haldimand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Halton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hamilton 0 2 0 0 0 0 2
Huron 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Niagara 3 4 0 0 0 0 6
Norfolk 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Perth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Waterloo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Waterloo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total Fox Strain 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total Raccoon Strain 3 6 0 0 0  0 9

Number of DRIT tests: 575

Number of baits distributed: 0

Number of confirmatory tests performed by CFIA (Ontario only, including bats): 1

Number of confirmatory test performed by CFIA (Ontario only, terrestrial animals only): 0

Number of rabies positive terrestrial animals subject to virus variant typing by CFIA (Ontario only): 0

 

 

2019

County Raccoon Skunk Fox Cat Bovine Dog Total
Brant 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Haldimand 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Halton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hamilton 6 8 0 0 0 0 14
Huron 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Niagara 1 2 0 0 0 1 3
Norfolk 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Perth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Waterloo 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Waterloo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total Fox Strain 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total Raccoon Strain 9 12 0 0 0 1 22

Number of DRIT tests: >1900

Number of baits distributed: 0

Number of confirmatory tests performed by CFIA (Ontario only): 13

Number of rabies positive terrestrial animals subject to virus variant typing by CFIA (Ontario only): 11

 

2018

County Raccoon Skunk Fox Cat Bovine Total
Brant 6 0 0 0 0 6
Haldimand 4 0 0 0 0 4
Halton 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hamilton 29 7 0 0 0 36
Huron 0 1 0 0 0 1
Niagara 10 7 0 0 0 17
Norfolk 1 0 0 0 0 1
Perth 0 0 0 0 1 1
Waterloo 0 1 0 0 0 1
Waterloo 0 2 0 0 0 2
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph 0 3 0 0 0 3
Total Fox Strain 0 6 0 0 1 7
Total Raccoon Strain 50 15 0 0 0 65

Number of DRIT tests: >3,800

Number of baits distributed: 1,444,161

Number of confirmatory tests performed by CFIA (Ontario only): 81

Number of rabies positive terrestrial animals subject to virus variant typing by CFIA (Ontario only): 74

2017

 

County Raccoon Skunk Fox Cat Bovine Total
Brant 8 0 0 0 0 8
Haldimand 6 2 0 0 0 8
Halton 8 9 0 0 0 17
Hamilton 45 19 0 1 0 65
Huron 0 1 0 0 1 2
Niagara 19 2 0 0 0 21
Perth 0 1 0 0 3 4
Waterloo 0 3 1 0 0 4
Total Fox Strain 0 5 1 0 4 10
Total Raccoon Strain 86 32 0 1 0 119

 

Number of DRIT tests: >4,000

Number of baits distributed: >1.1M

Number of confirmatory tests performed by CFIA (Ontario only): 138

Number of rabies positive terrestrial animals subject to virus variant typing by CFIA (Ontario only):  127

2016

 

County Raccoon Skunk Fox Cat Llama Bovine Total
Brant 11 1 0 0 0 0 12
Haldimand 17 0 0 0 1 0 18
Halton 7 2 0 0 0 0 9
Hamilton 126 76 1 1 0 0 204
Huron 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Niagara 10 2 0 0 0 0 12
Perth 0 1 0 0 0 1 2
Total Fox Strain 0 2 0 0 0 1 3
Total Raccoon Strain 171 81 1 1 1 0 255

 

Number of DRIT tests: >4,500

Number of baits distributed: >1.6 million

2015 (December only)

 

County Raccoon Bovine Total
Haldimand 1 0 1
Hamilton 9 0 9
Perth 0 1 1
Total Fox Strain 0 1 1
Total Raccoon Strain 10 0 10

Number of DRIT tests: >150

Number of baits distributed: ~220,000