Attaining raccoon rabies management goals: history and challenges

Prior to 1977, raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies was confined to the southeastern US. Translocations led to emergence of this rabies variant in the mid-Atlantic states, followed by spread northerly to northeast Ohio and Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, Canada. Raccoon rabies is currently contiguous from southwest Alabama to southeastern Canada. Since 1998, state, federal, county and municipal as well as Canadian and Mexican experts have collaborated on goals and strategies to prevent raccoon rabies spread in North America. Coordinated programmes have been established from Maine to Alabama. Successes have been realized through strategies that rely heavily on oral vaccination. International coordination targeting raccoon rabies continues in eastern Canada, where contingency actions have led to elimination or near elimination in Ontario and New Brunswick. However, increasingly, focus in the US has been directed toward contingency actions to "hold-the-line" where raccoon rabies threatens to spread to new areas, rather than on raccoon rabies elimination. We report on the challenges of achieving enhanced rabies surveillance, containment of raccoon rabies, and local elimination of raccoon rabies, as well as the need for international coordination in meeting these challenges.