Rutland, that was fascinating reading. I never would have thought of bats being a danger to dogs being flown. I am already a believer when it come to giving horses the rabies vaccine. That lesson was learned the hard way by horse owners and their vets in my area about 20 years ago when a rabid horse exposed almost 20 people before being correctly diagnosed.
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When we moved from NY to Hawaii, in 1975, we brought with us our first dog, a Golden Retriever. He was vaccinated against rabies before we left the East Coast. He went into Hawaii’s compulsory 4 months quarantine on our arrival. Over the years, we imported several more Goldens from the mainland, and they, too, went through 4 months quarantine. Back in the '80s, I became besotted with the Norwich Terrier, acquired by way of England. Hawaii honored the UK’s rabies-free status and permitted English dogs to enter Hawaii without going through the obligatory quarantine, ONLY IF those dogs entered the 50th State in a sealed crate on a direct flight from the UK. At the time, the only flights I could arrange, were those on Continental, which flew through Denver or Dallas (could be Houston, I can’t recall). The crates weren’t permitted to be unloaded and their place in the hold had to be verified by a pilot. When the second leg of the flight continued on to Hawaii, that seal on the crate had to be intact or the dog would be quarantined for 4 months. I was told that the dogs had to remain in their crates on the Mainland because of the threat of rabies from bats in the hangars.
Years later, when we moved from Hawaii to the UK, I had to have all 15 of my dogs vaccinated against rabies before we flew to LA, and then on to England. Every one of those dogs was born in Hawaii or the UK, both rabies-free. Before we flew to LA, I had an interesting conversation with the official vet at California’s Department of Health (or whatever it is called now). He implored me to have my dogs vaccinated against rabies before leaving Hawaii, despite the fact that all of them would be vaccinated upon arriving in England and spending 6 months of quarantine there (England did not honor Hawaii’s rabies-free status). He said the biggest threat was from bats, especially at the airport. He explained that the time of year we were planning on arriving in LA, coincided with the bats’ migration north from Mexico (I didn’t know bats migrated, so that was worrying news). I had all the dogs (6 Goldens and 9 Norwich) vaccinated, without incident, before we left. And, yes, they were re-vaccinated upon arrival in England.
Rabies vaccination in Hawaii and the UK is not obligatory. However, since the UK is part of the EU, properly vaccinated dogs can travel from this green and pleasant land to the continent and back as never before. Rabies does exist in all of the other EU member states, so trust in the efficacy of the rabies vaccine is implicit. Hawaii’s quarantine laws are now quite different from when I was resident there. It may be that the vaccine is used/recommended more now than years before.
I must relate a rather horrifying story regarding rabies in horses. Many years ago, probably back in the '70s, the Australian breeder of a friend’s dogs, had occasion to be in Europe on a fact-finding trip regarding the prevalence of rabies in domestic animals. He was in France, with several other people involved in this research. They were called to a farm where a horse was in the active stage of rabies. No one was permitted to be anywhere near the animal, and were witnessing his death-throes through binoculars. Because he was lathered and agitated, he was dispatched from a considerable distance with a high-powered rifle, for fear that his sweat and saliva would contaminate any of the people present. If anyone needs more encouragement to vaccinate horses against rabies, the mental picture of that suffering animal should be reason enough.
Unvaccinated horses out at pasture are probably more likely to contract rabies than any other “pets,” given that they are in the environment of wild animals that harbor the disease for many uninterrupted and unwitnessed hours. At the time of the above story, the statistics for rabies in animals which are in close contact with man, was horses, then dogs, and then cats in descending order.[/QUOTE]
It has historically stopped at the mountains. Heck, I don’t think Alberta vaccinates for Rabies as a matter of course either, unless horses are heading into an area where it’s endemic (Great Lakes and parts further east).[/QUOTE]