Elimination of Arctic fox variant rabies from southern Ontario, Canada

The province of Ontario, Canada, experienced a major epizootic of rabies due to Arctic fox virus variant (AFVV) rabies beginning in northern Ontario in 1954. The disease quickly spread south in red fox ( Vulpes vulpes) populations and by 1958 was firmly established across southern Ontario. Between 1958 and the start of wildlife rabies control efforts in 1989, Ontario reported 49 125 AFVV rabies cases, averaging 1535 per year. Comprehensive research and subsequent campaigns to immunize wildlife using baits containing an oral rabies vaccine led to the elimination of AFVV from southeastern and southcentral Ontario. A primary host shift from red fox to striped skunk ( Mephitis mephitis) hampered efforts to eliminate the virus in southwestern Ontario until a new oral rabies vaccine was developed that effectively immunized both species. Through persistent and adaptive research and rabies control programs over the past 30 years, AFVV appears to have been eliminated from southern Ontario, with the last case confirmed in December 2018. Here we report on the history of AFVV in Ontario and methods used to eliminate the disease in southern parts of the province.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Facets

• Publication date

  2025-01-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1139/facets-2025-0202
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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