The Autonomous City of Melilla has declared "rabies alert level 1" after detecting four cases in recent weeks, in a town where the risk of contracting this disease is greater as it borders a country like Morocco "where rabies is endemic" while tightening the conditions for traveling to the rest of Spain with domestic animals from the autonomous city.
The head of the Ministry of Social Policies and Public Health, Randa Mohamed (PP), has ordered this level of alert to be decreed after the appearance of these four cases diagnosed by PCR and indirect immunofluorescence in the National Reference Laboratory of the Carlos Health Institute III of Madrid, "and in accordance with the contingency plan for the control of rabies in domestic animals in Spain as well as with the Animal Health Regulations in the City of Melilla and the Protocols of our Unit."
To prevent the possibility of indigenous transmission, Public Health has established a series of measures that will last at least six months, where it establishes that "the geographical Restriction Area (AR) of the outbreak is the territory of the Autonomous City of Melilla."
In this regard, it has warned that any aggressive animal susceptible to rabies found within the AR (except for those correctly identified and vaccinated) "will be considered a Probable Case, and in any case epidemiological surveillance must be extreme."
Likewise, samples will be taken from all the carnivore corpses found in the AR whenever their condition makes it possible, for shipment to the Carlos III Institute Laboratory in Madrid for rabies diagnosis.
Furthermore, the decree signed by Randa Mohamed states that contact of domestic livestock with any domestic carnivore will be avoided. "If livestock surveillance suspects that an animal may have been infected, it will be isolated and, if it shows compatible symptoms, it will be sacrificed and tested for rabies," he said.
Alert level 1 also contemplates strengthening the control of stray or abandoned animals. "If the owner cannot be located within 48 hours, or the animal is unidentified, but it is an animal that can be subject to adoption protocol, it will undergo an observation period of six months (in accordance with the Contingency Plan for Rabies in Spain) to later be given up for adoption," he said.
The Ministry of Public Health has also ordered continued vigilance regarding the presence of feral dogs in the city, outskirts and border areas. Likewise, both in cats and dogs, he recalled that, in accordance with the provisions of current regulations, "animals cannot be fed on the road and in public spaces, since it causes their uncontrolled proliferation, except for those authorized feline colonies. ".
He has also requested that people not interact with animals that are without health control or vaccination "since they may possibly be acting as reservoirs of the disease."
The area led by Randa Mohamed has established a reinforcement of the mandatory anti-rabies vaccination of dogs, cats and ferrets, as well as their identification. Public Health has highlighted that control of the movement of susceptible pets to the rest of the national territory will be increased.
"In order to travel, it will be essential to have a Health Passport with its microchip identification, as well as a valid anti-rabies vaccination," he indicated, adding that "in animals undergoing primary vaccination, it will be necessary for them to be immunized with two doses and a month must have passed since the second". Finally, they have transferred these regulations to the State and Local Security Forces and Bodies for compliance with them.
