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City's Rabid Raccoon Outbreak Under Control

By DNAinfo Staff on February 9, 2011 4:06pm  | Updated on February 10, 2011 6:07am

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Nearly a dozen rabid raccoons were being captured every week in Central Park a year ago, and encounters with petrified pooches and unsuspecting parks-goers (including this reporter) were increasingly common.

Not anymore.

Since September, just one rabid raccoon has been captured in parks throughout the borough, according to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Between Sept. 15 and Feb 1, not a single rabid raccoon was found.

That's down from 19 sick raccoons discovered in December of 2010, 23 in January of that year, and 29 last February, when the city launched an extensive vaccination program in Central Park to contain the outbreak.

The department performed a second round of vaccinations during the fall to protect new pups born this past summer.

Dr. Sally Slavinski, assistant director of the Health Department's Zoonotic and Vector Borne Disease Unit, described the decline as "dramatic."

"The goal was to reduce transmission ... and we definitely accomplished [that]," she said.

Slavinski credited the reversal partially to the department's program, which had vaccinated 396 raccoons so far, and which protects them from the disease even if they interact with an infected friend.

But the epidemic also wiped out at least 100 raccoons, so there are fewer around to get sick.

"When the virus came through, we think it wiped out a large portion of the population," she said.

While the outbreak seemed contained for now, Slavinski said the department remains vigilant, and would continue to screen the park.

Prior to the end of last year, rabid raccoons were extremely rare in Manhattan. Only one was found from 2003 to 2008. Twelve were found in 2009.