Vampire bat-transmitted rabies in cattle

Abstract

A short history of bovine paralytic rabies in the Americas is given. Based on information from the Animal Health Yearbook--a cooperative publication of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Office of Epizootics (OIE)--a comparison is made of the epidemiology of the disease in 1968, 1978, and 1985. An important reduction in the number of cases of rabies was observed in some countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama), mainly as a result of the use of effective vaccines that are now available and of the application of new technology to reduce the vampire bat population, the vector of the disease in cattle. The trials performed in Argentina and Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s provide enough evidence that many vaccines will protect cattle against bovine paralytic rabies. Results of these trials are presented.