Concerns Raised in the EU About Increasing Cases of Rabies Among Wild Animals 0 7

According to the publication, the implementation of oral vaccination programs for wild animals against rabies has led to the near-total elimination of this disease in the EU by the beginning of 2020.

In fact, the number of outbreaks decreased from 13,000 cases in 1990 to fewer than 10 during the period from 2017 to 2019. However, starting in 2020, significant outbreaks of the virus have begun to be recorded again in wild populations in Central and Eastern Europe.

The first significant outbreak occurred in 2021–2022 in Poland, in the Masovian Voivodeship. The second affected Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is noteworthy that rabies had not been recorded in Hungary for 5 years and in Slovakia for 7 years.

A group of researchers from the French National Agency for Food Safety (ANSES) and the rabies reference laboratory in Europe, together with scientists from various research institutions in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova, analyzed the current situation and concluded that it could spiral out of control. “Such a situation has not been observed in the EU for more than 10 years,” the publication quotes the researchers. They assert that the cause of the current situation is the interruptions in oral vaccination campaigns for animals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Scientists emphasize that the rapid turnover of wild animal populations does not allow for breaks in such activities, and the only way to prevent further spread of the infection is to continue continuous and coordinated actions for the oral vaccination of wild animals.