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Article: Forecasting the path of a raccoon rabies epidemic.(EH Update)
- Article from:
- Journal of Environmental Health
- Article date:
- September 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Environmental Health Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the mid-1970s, a new strain of raccoon rabies started spreading throughout the eastern United States. Raccoons caught in Florida had been released along the West Virginia--Virginia border to replenish hunting stocks, and some of the imports carried a rabies variant that caused an outbreak in local populations. The disease has been steadily spreading among raccoons ever since. In 1990, raccoons topped the list of most often reported rabid mammal.
Controlling this re-emerging public health threat depends on predicting the spatial dynamics of the disease--where new outbreaks might occur and how the virus might spread. Toward this end, a group of researchers have ...