By Eric Bedin and Jorgelina Marino
Also see the route of rabies in our Wolf Mapper
The monitoring team found the first Ethiopian wolf carcass in the Sanetti Plateau in July 2015, within the range of the BBC pack –which we started monitoring 20 years ago. Monitoring intensified and in August we found two dead juveniles in nearby Garba Gurracha pack, which finally testified to the beginning of a rabies outbreak, kick-starting the emergency vaccination intervention that followed.
Carcasses were found in and around Sanetti until mid-October 2014, signalling the end of a first wave of infection. In January 2015 dead wolves started appearing in Morabawa, another core area for Ethiopian wolves in Bale. The sequencing in the lab of the rabies virus found in the retrieved carcasses showed that this was indeed a separated rabies ingression into the wolf population. While the vaccination team moved to Morabawa, three juvenile wolves were found dead in Sanetti as late as March 2015. No further carcasses were found since then.
In total, between July 2014 and March 2015 we found 22 wolf carcasses (eight of which tested positive for rabies; others were too decomposed to provide suitable samples), and observed six sick animals, effectively signalling this as the most strenuous and hectic year in the life of EWCP. None of the dead or sick animals had been previously vaccinated against rabies.
Photo: Whenever a wolf carcass is found, a detailed post mortem is conducted and brain samples tested for rabies virus. ©EWCP