A Creative Solution to a Bad Situation

Lola  - July 2012

With the onset of winter, I find myself spending my free time reading. I decided to start with the Journal of Wildlife Rehabilitation, a publication of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (www.theirwc.org). An article in the November 3, 2012 issue on raccoons and rabies caught my attention.

New York’s Central Park is a unique urban environment, an 843 acre city park surrounded by roads and buildings. At any given time approximately 500 raccoons live within the confines of the park and during the period from December 2009 – 2011, 133 raccoons collected tested positive for the rabies virus.

The city of New York, state and federal agencies met to discuss ways to address the zoonotic disease that put raccoons, dogs and their owners at risk. Suggestions ranged from culling the raccoon population, oral vaccines and TVR (trap-vaccinate-release). Anticipating resistance from animal welfare organizations and the general public to culling the population, the group decided to use the TVR method.

Three TVR rounds were conducted: the first in February 2010, the second in September 2010 and the last in November 2011. Humane traps were set out nightly throughout the park. Raccoons that were found ill or injured were humanely euthanized, the healthy raccoons rabies vaccinated, ear tagged and released. The first TVR round trapped 11 rabies positive raccoons, none in round 2 and one rabies positive raccoon during the final round. At the peak of the rabies epidemic, 11 rabid raccoons were captured each week. Wildlife officials were pleased with the results of the TVR program but also recognized that without continual TVR activity it was likely that rabies would occur again. But the project did prove that in certain situations, trap-vaccinate-release programs were a viable response to rabies outbreaks.

What I found so interesting in this article was the decision to not eradicate the raccoon population but rather to find a nonlethal means to address what was a public health issue. In this situation, the raccoon population was confined to a geographic area where the introduction of new raccoons was limited. The risk to the human and canine population was minimal as the raccoons were live trapped and vaccinated by experienced wildlife professionals. The significant decline of rabies incidence occurred within a short period of time. Because the process did not include a wholesale culling, the program’s result was a positive wildlife/human story.

In Great Britain this year, a decision to cull badger populations believed responsible for an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis generated a country-wide petition signed by more than 150,000 people demanding that the British Parliament reconsider its decision. Responding to the public outrage, the Parliament delayed action until 2013.

There are no simple solutions when it comes to zoonotic diseases. Trap-vaccinate-release is only practical when the wildlife population in question is small and in a confined area. Culling requires that a large percentage of healthy and infected wildlife be killed with no guarantee that the disease will be eradicated. But I am hopeful that the success of the Central Park raccoon program will guide wildlife experts to consider TVR and other nonlethal solutions when confronted with zoonotic disease outbreaks.