Carroll County Animal Control Officer Terry Woods addressed the Carroll County Board of Supervisors about the subject during its July 13 meeting. As of the meeting, Woods told the board there had been eight positive cases of rabies in the county – five gray foxes, two raccoons and one skunk.
In surrounding counties, Woods said Bland had one case of rabies as of July 2, Grayson County had one, and Wythe County had two. Those counties are all in the Mount Rogers Health District. Floyd County had five cases of rabies, while Patrick County had two.
“As far as surrounding counties, we are probably one of the highest,” Woods said.
Board Chairman Dr. Tom Littrell wanted to know how the eight cases of rabies compared to past years in Carroll County.
“Usually we have eight to 10 in a full year, but we’ve had eight positives so far in half a year,” Woods said. “And there is a lot more out there that we are not getting. There have been several others that were sent for testing that there was no exposure of any type.”
Woods said USDA is testing things his office doesn’t want to test. The only problem is getting the animals to them. Locally, Carroll’s office only has a small freezer, making it tough to place an entire animal in it.
“There has been some that has been sent to them and I have not gotten any reports back from them being positive,” Woods said. “The reason why USDA is doing that is last year they did aerial drops along the Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee border, and they are looking to see if they need to move a little further inland in the state borders to drop these things. Hopefully we will get in that corridor this time. I don’t know if that really helps, but it can’t hurt. The aerial drop is a bait they drop with the rabies vaccine that hopefully something will get hold of it and eat it.”
For the past couple of years, Woods said he’s thought Carroll had hit its peak for rabies cases. At some point soon, it will start to decline, he said.
Fancy Gap District Supervisor Manus McMillian asked Woods if there was a need to be alarmed.
“There is no real major concern,” Woods said. “I noticed in the report from the state, Northern Virginia – Fairfax, Fauquier County, Loudon County had 15, 20 and 26 (cases of rabies). They test everything, roadkill, everything, whether there has been any exposure or not. If we tested everything we’d be in the teens, but we don’t do it. The Health Department doesn’t do it unless there has been exposure. It is kind of an expensive test to do.”
Supervisor Sam Dickson said he owns three dogs. Two of them decided they were going to “eliminate” a raccoon problem on his property, but the raccoon decided to fight back.
“It’s kind of scary. You read the paper about rabies, so I called Terry and he quickly told me what to look for and what not to, and the health department came out and did what they needed to do and they gave me advice on shots for them,” Dickson said. “I think everything turned out well. Everything was fine except for the poor little raccoon. Thank you, Terry, for your work. I know you are often in a dangerous position. But when a citizen calls and doesn’t know a lot about it and you tell them what to look for, it makes you feel better.”
Dickson said one of the first questions he was asked was if anyone came in contact with the raccoon. A person doesn’t have to be bitten to contact rabies, he said, noting that contact with broken skin is enough to spread the disease.
“Right, it could even be through the mucous membranes through a splatter or something,” Woods said. “Everyone needs to make sure their pets are vaccinated. That’s the most important thing.”
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