The percentage of pet dogs in Japan that have received rabies vaccines has fallen from nearly 100 percent to about 70 percent in recent years, according to government data, and a lack of reported cases has contributed to a decline in fear of the almost always fatal disease. There is a high possibility that they are connected.
In a case that highlights the decline in the vaccination rate, which was 70.9% in 2022 according to the latest data obtained by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, a dog that attacked more than a dozen people, including children, in Gunma Prefecture in February was not vaccinated. I hadn't received it. Measures against rabies.
A dog owner said, “I thought vaccinations were bad for the body,'' and explained that one of his dogs died after being vaccinated.
Photo taken in October 2023, dogs at an animal shelter in Hofu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture (Kyodo News)
Japan's Rabies Prevention Law requires owners to vaccinate their dogs against rabies once a year, and failure to vaccinate dogs can result in fines of up to 200,000 yen ($1,300).
There have been no active cases of infection in humans in the country since 1956 or in animals since 1957.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, nearly all pet dogs were vaccinated against rabies in the mid-1990s, but by 2000 the vaccination rate had fallen below 80%. The total number of dogs registered with local governments over the past 20 years is approximately 6 million.
Naoto Ito, a professor at Gifu University who specializes in zoonotic diseases, said the lack of infectious diseases and the prevalence of misleading information online about the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations are to blame for the decline in vaccination rates. He said there is.
Due to strict quarantine measures, the likelihood of rabies entering Japan remains low. However, in Taiwan, where there had been no confirmed cases of rabies for more than 50 years, the disease was spreading among ferret badgers in 2013, highlighting the need for vigilance.
In Japan, wild animals are not sufficiently monitored, so there are “many unknowns when assessing risk,” Ito said.
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