Europe Worried About Wildlife Rabies Spread

Wildlife rabies is spreading through Europe at an unprecedented rate, worrying and puzzling veterinary scientists whose theories are being shattered by the record number of reported cases.

Governments are encouraging the killing of red foxes, carriers of the disease, but some scientists are concerned that this could result in the elimination of the species.

The European Center for Rabies Surveillance and Research in Tuebingen, West Germany, estimates the number of reported rabies cases in 1984 at 22,000--10% higher than in 1982 and 1983 when record levels also were reached. With most of the cases going unreported, the actual numbers may be up to 10 times higher, the center’s scientists say.

Dr. Winfried W. Muller, who is in charge of the center’s surveillance unit, said the disease has been spreading steadily since 1977.

Theory in Disarray

Muller was in Strasbourg for the first European conference in early January on rabies prevention, sponsored by the World Health Organization.

“We used to believe the rabies epidemic recurs rhythmically, in three- to four-year cycles,” he said. The statistics, however, disprove that theory and leave the scientific community with a number of “not well defined” speculations, he said.

The current epidemic is generally believed to have started in the late 1930s at the Polish-Soviet border. Carried largely by the red fox, the disease has since spread west at the rate of 25 miles a year. By the end of 1984, the epidemic covered the whole of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, East and West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the non-Alpine region of Switzerland. At twice the usual rate, wildlife rabies also has spread through much of northern Italy and Yugoslavia. Only the Scandinavian countries, the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles are considered rabies-free.

The French government has declared “infected” a belt that extends from the northeastern frontier westward across Paris to Normandy and as far south as the Alpine provinces on the Swiss border.

Recent New Outbreak

The spread of the disease has been geographically contained, largely by the systematic extermination of the fox population, but the government is concerned about a recent new outbreak of rabies in the northern suburbs of Paris.

“The situation is really serious,” especially in St. Denis and at Roissy, where the Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports are situated, according to Dr. Robert Ligniers, France’s chief rabies epidemiologist. He said the epidemic is particularly worrisome because the fox habitat is moving closer to the densely populated areas and because the gassing of fox lairs and hunting in the region are prohibited.

“We could have a rabid fox running through the airport terminal,” Ligniers said.

Muller contends, however, that the chance of human infection from the rabies virus is small. He said there have been 28 cases of human rabies reported in Europe during the five-year period ending in 1982 and none since then. Of the 28 cases, six were imported from other continents, he added.

The development of the rabies vaccine a century ago and the compulsory vaccination of dogs throughout Europe has diminished or eliminated rabies in domestic animals. But, according to Muller, the slaughter of the “vector,” or carrier, animal remains the only effective control of wildlife rabies.

Until the late 1970s, pumping cyanide gas into fox dens was among the most widely used methods of controlling the fox population. But, due largely to public outcry and environmental concerns, this method has been abandoned or outlawed in all West European countries.

Today, in much of the continent, fox hunting is permitted all year round, and governments encourage it by paying a bounty for each kill. In France, a fox tail from the affected area fetches up to 100 francs ($11).