Knowledge of the rate and extent of spread of epizootic diseases is critical to facilitate effective management. Terrestrial rabies was first detected in spring 2004 on Cape Cod Massachusetts, compromising a long-standing ORV zone established from the west side of the Cape Cod Canal to serve as a barrier to raccoon rabies spread onto the Cape. In March 2004, USDA Wildlife Services and local and state cooperators implemented a surveillance program to track the spread of rabies on Cape Cod for planning contingency action strategies aimed at containment and elimination. During 13 months of enhanced rabies surveillance, 198 (167 raccoons and 29 skunks) out of 942 specimens tested positive for rabies. We discuss management implications of these results to the Cape Cod Oral Rabies Vaccination program and to other integrated rabies control programs.

Knowledge of wildlife population abundance and activity patterns is integral to sound management decisions. Traditional methods of determining population abundance include mark-recapture, catch/unit effort, aerial and ground counts, and harvest-based or removal efforts. Capture methods are labor intensive and expensive. Census methods are potentially expensive and are often impractical for many wildlife species. Harvest-derived population estimates are not useful where harvest is limited. Tracking or scent stations have been used to index wildlife activity and abundance, but the use of traditional scented-tracking stations may lead to biased population activity or abundance estimates. We built on previous evaluations of passive and scented tracking stations to determine their potential utility for providing raccoon and other carnivore population information to support decisions for wildlife rabies control in coastal pine-oak communities. Methods were evaluated through several small-scale studies conducted in southeastern Massachusetts. Passive tracking stations appear more sensitive to raccoon activity than scented tracking stations (1.38% of scented stations visited vs. 3.38% of passive stations) under apparently low raccoon population densities. Despite concerns over the utility of track-based indices, we recommend the use of passive tracking stations to index raccoon activity over scented tracking stations.

Rabies remains a globally significant zoonotic disease, but rabies control is achievable under certain circumstances. Canine rabies has been eliminated from the U.S.; however, approximately 55,000 humans die annually worldwide from the disease. In the U.S., economic losses continue to be substantial and the risk to humans and domestic animals has not been eliminated. As an example of the complexity of rabies management, we describe a local rabies control program and efforts to restore Cape Cod, MA to terrestrial rabies-free status, after a 2004 oral rabies vaccination (ORV) barrier breach following 10 years of rabies-free status. The emergence of raccoon rabies in southeastern New England in 1992 prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to begin an ORV program to reduce the occurrence of carnivore rabies in an area directly adjacent to the Cape Cod Canal. In 2001, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services began full-time collaboration on the Cape Cod Oral Rabies Vaccination Program (CCORVP) as part of national wildlife rabies control efforts. The primary objective of the CCORVP was to use ORV in tandem with the physical barrier created by the Canal to prevent the spread of rabies to peninsular Cape Cod, a heavily-populated tourist destination southeast of Boston. After an increase in rabies cases within the traditional Cape Cod ORV zone, ORV bait distribution efforts were modified to reduce the risk of rabies spread onto the Cape. In spite of these modifications, raccoon rabies was detected for the first time on peninsular Cape Cod in March 2004. A trap-vaccinate-release campaign, removal of suspect raccoons and skunks, and expanded ORV efforts were unsuccessful in preventing the spread of the virus. Rabies surveillance became the priority of the Cape Cod Rabies Task Force. In 2006, rabies was finally detected at the eastern extremity of the peninsula. In this paper, we summarize ORV efforts, explore possible causes for the spread of raccoon rabies onto the Cape, summarize several small-scale Cape Cod rabies research projects, and suggest a 5-year plan for future Cape Cod rabies controls efforts.

USDA APHIS Wildlife Services has been a primary cooperator in the Cape Cod Oral Rabies Vaccination Program (CCORVP) in southeastern Massachusetts since 2001. The CCORVP (1994 - present) was originally designed to reduce the incidence of terrestrial rabies adjacent to the Cape Cod Canal in order to prevent its spread on to peninsular Cape Cod. However, since the barrier breach in 2004, CCORVP is now focused on rabies control in this coastal resort area southeast of Boston, MA. An integral component of wildlife rabies management is oral vaccination with vaccine-laden baits. Consequently, maximizing bait uptake rates is critical to achieving sufficient population immunity to reduce rabies prevalence and achieve control. To that end, knowledge of raccoon food habits, especially at ORV bait delivery times (spring and fall on Cape Cod) is crucial. We undertook a study of raccoon food selection in southeastern Massachusetts to assess the presence of and interest in competing food resources. We collected intact stomachs from raccoons found dead or euthanized for rabies testing within the CCORVP zone during 2006 (n = 33) and 2007 (n = 109) for analysis. Stomach contents were dominated by vegetation (80%), followed by invertebrates (43%), non-food items (41%), vertebrates (35%), and hair (primarily raccoon based on appearance) (15%). Food item occurrence appears to be related to age. We present findings, potential management implications, and suggestions for assessing food use related to rabies control in other locations.