The final stages of dog rabies elimination from Japan

Rabies is a lethal zoonotic disease mainly transmitted to humans by dog bites. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of rabies control policies in Japan, which resulted in the elimination of the disease from the country in 1957. Using historical records from the Kanto region (Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Tokyo Prefectures) between 1947 and 1956 where the final canine cases were recorded, we undertook a descriptive epidemiological study, applying spatio-temporal scan statistics using SaTScan and estimating the effective reproduction number (R_t ) for the clusters and each prefecture using the growth rates. There were 1,567 dog rabies and 161 human rabies cases recorded during this period. Vaccination coverage in registered dogs was over 70% after 1951, with much lower coverage in free-roaming and unregistered dogs. Eight clusters of dog rabies cases were identified: the first appeared in 1947 in Tokyo and was linked to three further clusters in peripheral prefectures between 1947 and 1951. Three more clusters occurred in Tokyo again between 1952 and 1954, and the last cluster was in Tokyo and Kanagawa between 1955 and 1956. R_t in the first cluster was 1.68, and R_t values in the others ranged between 1.18 and 1.86, with an exception of 4.05 in the smallest cluster in Tokyo in 1952 (10 cases). The moving average of R_t coincided with the clusters. As dog vaccination and dog management progressed, and the number of dog rabies cases declined, the moving average of R_t declined to below 1. Delays in the implementation of dog management policies in Kanagawa may have prolonged this last outbreak. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of coordinated control policy involving dog vaccination and management of free-roaming dog populations for rabies elimination.