Lutte contre la rage en Belgique: bilan épidémiologique 1991 et stratégie future

Two fox vaccination campaigns against rabies were carried out during spring and autumn 1991 in the Belgian contaminated area (10,000 km²). Vaccine-baits containing the vaccinia-rabies recombinant virus were dropped by air at a mean density of 15 baits/km². In 1991, a drastic decrease in animal rabies cases was observed, as only 29 cases were reported in Belgium. The disease has disappeared from the largest part of the initially contaminated area and, since the beggining of the 2nd trimester 1991, all fox cases were reported exclusively along the French border. If the current epidemiological situation remains the same, the vaccination strategy for 1992 need to be geographically redefined; an immune belt 30 km wide should be created along our borders with France, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and Germany.