What I was saying… news says that “you should cook ferret thoroughly” to kill rabies virus. More worrisome is so many ferrets found dropped dead/dying. How someone dares to eat them under those conditions…
Even more worrisome, there are only 300 rabies vaccines for humans in all Taiwan. sigh
In other news, rabies will affect sales of high end coffee, as people are afraid they might get rabies from coffee beans excreted from ferret-like animals’ behind…double sigh
Yet another news story that makes me realize how little I know about Taiwan. From The China Post:
This happens here?! I’m guessing this is an aboriginal tradition, and in some ways eating off the land is I suppose a good thing, but villages actually have seasons where they realize “Hey, ferret-badgers are easy to catch and eat right now!”
Gee. NOW they decide that tourists shouldn’t feed or get close to wild monkeys. Because, you know, last week it would have been a good idea.
I am a little worried since the disease hasn’t been around for over 50 years.
I think where rabies is present and has been established for long periods of time, it has come to an equilibrium with rabies new infections and the reservoir host.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a big wave of rabies incidences hitting the island first.
Here is a pdf read. All about rabies.
By the way; The Walking dead season four will be out on October 13th.
Maybe Norman Reedus brought this on us during his stay in Taiwan this year.
Well, there was an interesting article regarding a one year lapse for the disease to reach epidemic proportions.
As to “it’s starting” the neighbors were all over us this morning walk. One said we could be fined if the dogs did not have a muzzle, 5 thousand each, 10K for both. Others scarily demanded to know if they have been vaccinated yet. Seems no one knows that the plaque hanging from their necks means so.
My dogs are fierce looking, mean spirited, huge Maltese, mind you.
its all interesting, but any of us from NA have lived around rabies for years. i for one have always had nasty animals like raccoons around and have not heard once of rabies. not that we shouldnt be careful, but its not not like its some kind of air borne flesh eating disease. i think the fatality rate is what gets people so worked up, myself included.
I will be getting my dogs vaccinated when we get back for sure.
and outside of the cities, there is some incredibly wild shit that sounds like something right from a deep jungle horror movie. Even a lot of the “hua ren” Taiwanese are fairly ignorant about how much wild things happen in the mountains. hunting is still very common, and they do have guns to do so as well. i saw a rifle on the back of a scooter my first few months here, hunting up in the hills. seems the older guys are more hard core with machetes and leg muscles, so trapping is pretty common. i find traps probably every 4-5 times i go hiking, all of which get thrown down the valley.
Newspaper reports here of a ‘dead ferret-badger & stray dog’ double-find in mountainous Hualien County. Both corpses are being sent for rabies virus testing.
It could well be indicative of the rabies virus for wild ferret-badgers to show up and then die in mountain villages (rabies does alter behavioural patterns).
But it could also well just be a standard dead ferret-badger that suddenly finds itself making the news.
My wife was reading a news story about someone bitten by a dog in Taipei - he wants to have the rabies injections, but he’s not allowed to get them for some reason?! Sure, it’s probably not rabies, but now that rabies is known to be on the island, shouldn’t injections be sort of automatic if the animal can’t be found? But I’m not sure if I’ve got the story right.
I haven’t heard about this story, but I know Taiwan’s stocks of rabies vaccines for humans are laughably low right now. The firsr batch of imported ones will be here next week. It might be that they’re withdrawing vaccinations in those cases where the risk of having being exposed to the virus are nihil, 'cause the vaccines will need to go to the affected areas and to the veterinary professionals first.
If I were bitten by a stray in Nantou, Miaoli or Taidong in these days, though, I would fly to HK to get the shots if they weren’t giving me any here. Feel free to call me paranoid.
If you are bitten by strays in the affected area they will give you the vaccine. They have to test the animals first because they want to make sure that your chance of infection is high before administering the vaccine, until they are able to get a good stock of vaccines. So in the mean time be careful and don’t go near animals that acts weird.
Yep, but I guess your cat is indoor cat, right? Elderlies like mine get shots every 2 years and not in the same spot. As to rabies, it is highly unlikely for an infected bat or rat to get in, so I am confident we can get a booster when the lines/panic lessens.
Dogs, as they go outside, are another story. People too, unless you eat ferret regularly, more if you hunt your own.
Well, I can confirm 5 vets in Xindian and my usual spot in Taipei -the one that uses Chinese medicine on pets- are out of vaccine for both cats and dogs. Groovy. They all say they are waiting for the delivery of a big batch in September. In the meantime they recommend to keep the pets indoors.
People’s vaccines -3000 units- on their way for next week, more to come, as per local papers.
More worrisome is so many ferrets found dropped dead/dying. How someone dares to eat them under those conditions…
