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October 4th, 2024

Middlesex-London Health Unit Updates Community on Status of Legionella Outbreak

The local outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease, declared by the Middlesex-London Health Unit in…

August 26th, 2024

Heat Warning Issued For The Region

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a Heat Warning for London and Middlesex County…

August 12th, 2024

Middlesex-London Health Unit Continues Investigation Of Outbreak Of Legionnaires' Disease

Middlesex-London Health Unit is providing an update to the community on the ongoing outbreak of…

August 9th, 2024

Health Unit Confirms First Local Human Case Of West Nile Virus This Year

The Middlesex-London Health Unit is reporting the first locally-acquired human case of West Nile…

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Local Rabies Statistics

In 2019, the Middlesex-London Health Unit was involved in 1209 rabies investigations. This number has increased from previous years where 1094 investigations in 2018, and 1126 investigations in 2017 were completed.

 

Of these 1209 rabies investigations,

  • 612 involved domestic dogs,
  • 83 involved stray / unknown dogs,
  • 307 involved domestic cats,
  • 87 involved stray / feral cats,
  • The remaining investigations involved other animals, including bats, raccoons, and other small animals.
 

Rabies Update

In 2021, two bats have tested positive for rabies within the Middlesex-London area. One bat was from the City of London and the other was from Glencoe. Low numbers of positive bats have been seen over the past few years.

View the yearly Summary Rabies Observation Reports on this web page for more information.

 

For more details about rabies in the City of London or Middlesex County, please refer to the yearly Summary Rabies Observation Reports:

Rabies Vaccine

In 2019, 90 individuals had been potentially exposed to rabies and required rabies vaccinations. View the Rabies Observation Reports above to see the number of individuals who received the rabies vaccine in previous years. See Rabies Vaccines for further information on vaccination in humans.

Rabies in Ontario

In 2019, there were 65 positive cases of rabies in animals confirmed in Ontario.1,3 The number of positive rabies cases in Ontario has been steadily decreasing since the 2016 outbreak of raccoon strain rabies in the Hamilton and Haldimand-Norfolk counties; however, the number of positive rabies cases has still not declined to pre-outbreak numbers.1

Visit the Ontario’s Rabies Cases web page for further details and maps of confirmed cases of rabies animals in Ontario.
Visit the Rabies in Wildlife web page for control methods performed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to decrease rabies cases, and what to do if you think an animal has rabies.

 

Table 1. The number of rabies positive animals found in Ontario over the past 10 years as reported by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Year Number of Rabies Positive Animals
2021 *11
2020 49
2019 65
2018 104
2017 149
2016 288
2015 24
2014 18
2013 28
2012 28

*indicates the number of positive animals found up until June 30, 2021.

 

Rabies in Canada

Published reports on Rabies in Canada are available through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. These reports list the number of confirmed rabies cases in Canda by year, month and province/territory.

Additional Information

To speak to a Public Health Inspector on the Environmental Health Team about rabies in Middlesex-London, please call:

  • 519-663-5317
 
Date of creation: January 2, 2013
Last modified on: July 21, 2021
 

References

1Ontario. (2020, June 10). Rabies cases. Retrieved from
https://www.ontario.ca/page/rabies-cases