Better vaccines can slow spread of rabies

To the editor

By:
   It was disheartening to read the misleading information regarding feral cats and rabies that appeared in the May 11 Beacon article about the discovery of a rabid raccoon in Hillsborough. While the article correctly advises the public against contact with wild or unfamiliar animals, it unfairly exaggerates the threat posed by feral cats.
   According to Deputy Health Officer Siobhan Spano, rabies is a continuing problem in New Jersey "especially because of feral cats."
   Although it is possible for feral cats — as well as unvaccinated pet cats, dogs, and other domesticated mammals — to contract and transmit rabies, the primary carriers of rabies (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are raccoons, skunks, and bats.
   Furthermore, of the 37 laboratory-confirmed rabies cases in humans nationwide for the period 1990-2005, none was acquired from a cat (CDC data).
   The Beacon article recommends that anyone who comes in contact with a stray cat should call animal control, implying that the stray/feral cat will be checked out by a veterinarian.
   In fact, it is the policy of Hillsborough’s animal control provider, St. Hubert’s, to destroy stray/feral cats and kittens that it deems "unadoptable" — a description that applies to the vast majority of cats living in the wild.
   Progressive animal welfare groups and forward-thinking policymakers currently favor TNR (trap-neuter-release) as a humane and viable method of addressing the feral cat problem. In fact, the implementation of TNR further minimizes the already low risk of rabies among feral cats, because cats from TNR-managed colonies receive a rabies vaccination when they are spayed or neutered.
   Many veterinary professionals believe that the efficacy of vaccines long outlasts the standard time period for follow-up vaccination. Thus, a feral cat vaccinated once for rabies, whose life span is much shorter than a pet cat, need not be perceived as a serious rabies threat under normal circumstances.
   Rather than making feral cats the scapegoat for the existence of rabies in New Jersey, let’s take sensible steps such as TNR to improve the overall health of feral cat colonies.
   This course of action is both humane and responsive to public health concerns.

CarolAnn Honcharik
Carols Cats
Hillsborough