Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
According to the Virginia State Department of Health, the rabies epidemic among wild animals continues to spread. During the first two months of 1987, 44 rabid animals were reported to the department, compared to 12 during the same period in 1986.
In Northern Virginia the number of animal rabies cases increased between 1985 and 1986 in Clarke, Fairfax, Loudoun, Shenandoah and Warren counties. Several counties in southwest Virginia continue to report rabid skunks, apparently part of a larger outbreak affecting the midwest United States.
Dr. John Einarson, chief of the health department for Planning District 9, said that the outbreak, which began in 1981, has primarily involved raccoons. However, rabies has also been found in this district in foxes and skunks, as well as domesticated animals including dogs, cats and cattle.
“We know that there is rabies in the raccoon population, and we can expect it in other wild animal populations,” the public health official said. Rabies can infect any warmblooded mammal, and in other districts it has also been reported in groundhogs.
Dr. Einarson said that Rappahannock reported one rabid raccoon in 1985. There were no reports of rabid animals in the county last year. In 1981, during the first year of the outbreak, the county reported one grey fox and one raccoon with rabies. In 1982, one skunk was reported, and in 1984 a raccoon was found to be rabid, according to the Health Department’s records, he said.
There have been fewer reports of rabid animals in Rappahannock than in the other counties in the planning district, he said. He was quick to qualify that, explaining that reporting is related to population. “Those animals which are submitted for testing depend on detection by humans,” and in a rural county like Rappahannock a rabid animal has a greater chance of not being seen and reported by a resident.
That does not, of course, prevent a rabid animal which remains unreported from infecting other wild or domesticated animals with which it comes in contact, thus spreading the disease.
“In Fauquier County,” Dr. Einarson said, “the problem has been driven home by the discovery of eight cats which tested positive.”
According to Dr. C. M. G. But
92.1%