A 4-month-old border collie puppy died of rabies. The animal was illegally imported from Morocco and died thirteen days after its arrival in France. Authorities are renewing their call for vigilance.
Eventually, the 4-month-old puppy died of rabies on December 29. This information, first broadcast by La Depeche Veterinaire, was confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday, January 16.
The animal, a very young border collie, was “illegally imported from Morocco” 13 days ago, on December 16. The diagnosis of rabies, a disease thought to be completely absent on our soil, was confirmed by a laboratory in Nancy (Murthe-et-Moselle).
Contacts with this deadly disease, both in humans and other animals, have already been identified. According to France 3 A specialized veterinary assistant was bitten by a young dog. Various officials contacted by BFMTV.com have not released any information on his condition.
Rabies is “a disease that is systematically fatal once symptoms appear, both in humans and animals,” the ministry’s website recalls.
A woman recently died two months later on October 9 in Reims Injured by a wild cat in North Africa. Another 60,000 people worldwide die from the disease each year, according to the Pasteur Institute. Deaths are mainly concentrated in Asia and Africa.
Call for vigilance
As the National Order of Veterinarians explained to BFMTV.com, France has been free of rabies for more than two decades:
“Since 2001, a dozen cases of rabies in dogs or cats have been diagnosed in France. Most of the cases were directly or indirectly linked to the irregular importation of dogs or cats from countries where the disease is endemic.
Contaminated cats and dogs imported into France from Algeria, Morocco or the Gambia have been reported in recent years. Animals that have died of their infection or have been slaughtered as required by law, unless they have been vaccinated against rabies.
As the Ministry of Agriculture reminds us, “dogs and cats are prohibited from being brought back into French territory” if they do not have “a vaccination record and a health certificate established by the country’s health authorities”.
most read
