Published Date: 2002-04-20 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Rabies, antelope, other animals - Namibia
Archive Number: 20020420.3995

RABIES, ANTELOPE, OTHER ANIMALS - NAMIBIA
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See Also

Rabies: responses to various postings 19970826.1787
Rabies, livestock vaccination (03) 19961228.2158
Date: 19 Apr 2002
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: News24.com, 18 Apr 2002 [edited
<http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Southern_Africa/0,1113,2-11-40_11
69989,00.html>

Rabid kudu cause concern
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Windhoek: The occurrence of rabies among kudu [a large African
browsing antelope in certain areas of Namibia is a cause of great
concern for the country's veterinary services. Last month, 200 kudu
died of the disease in the Okahandja and Omaruru districts in western
Namibia, said Dr John Shaw, director of
veterinary services.
[Elsewhere an outbreak in the North Central district killed 7 cattle,
2 horses and 8 dogs. In Kavango, 8 cattle and 2 goats died of the
disease.
Shaw urged game farmers to timely inoculate their precious game
species against the disease. These include roan antelope, eland and
sable antelope and inoculation should take place "no matter how
difficult the operation".
It seemed as if the occurrence of rabies was following the same
pattern it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s when as many as 30
000 kudu died as a result of the disease, Shaw said. At the time the
disease even occurred in the Etosha Game Reserve.
[Byline: Johan Swiegers
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ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[The above-mentioned exceptional mass outbreak in kudu during the late
1970s & early 1980s was explained at the time by direct transmission
within the extremely dense animal population. This was attributed to
the presence of thorny acacia vegetation which caused wounds in the
animals, thus exposing them to infected saliva [from branches that had
been chewed on by rabid kudu. It would be interesting to get current
explanations to the possible causes of the recurrence of this unusual
phenomenon.- Mod. AS
................................................mpp/as/jw

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