STATE OF NEVADA

Report of Bureau of Biological Survey on the Rabies Eradication Campaign in the State of Nevada to the Nevada Rabies Commission

Report of the Bureau of Biological Survey on the Rabies Eradication Campaign in the State of

Nevada to Nevada Rabies Commission

Nevada Rabies Commission.

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA, June 15, 1916.

GENTLEMEN: We submit herewith a report on the rabies eradication campaign which is being conducted by the United States Bureau of Biological Survey in cooperation with the State of Nevada.

Respectfully,

S. E. PIPER, Assistant Biologist,

E. R. SANS, Predatory Animal Inspector,
R. A. WARD, Biological Assistant.

W. C. NEWBERRY, Chief Clerk.

INTRODUCTION

Rabies is now found over all the country east of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, up to the Washington line, one or two cases being reported in Asotin County, Washington. All of the open country in southern Idaho, known as the Snake River plains, is infested, practically east to the Wyoming line. The disease is prevalent in all of northern Nevada, south as far as the third standard parallel, with several isolated cases appearing recently in southern Nevada, around Pioche, Goldfield, Las Vegas, and other localities. Within the last month the disease has spread into the three northwestern counties of Box Elder, Juab, and Tooele, in Utah. Lassen and Modoc Counties, California, were the seat of a serious outbreak, though lately indications are that the disease is gradually being controlled. However, one human death resulted from rabies in Lassen County on May 8, 1916. While no accurate figures are available, it can safely be said that predatory animals and rabies have destroyed a quarter of a million dollars worth of live stock in Nevada since last September when the disease first attracted serious attention.

ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN

Active work in the control and eradication of rabies was inaugurated at the rabies conference held in Winnemucca on January 12, 1916. Previous to this date, however, a force of predatory animal hunters operating under the Biological Survey had been in the field combatting the spread of rabies in the course of their regular work.

At the rabies conference in Winnemucca the majority of the counties in Nevada were represented and the situation was thoroughly and intelligently discussed. Plans for the eradication of rabies were formulated, and the methods of raising the funds for the work dis

cussed and decided upon. Approximately $95,000 was pledged by the State of Nevada, County Commissioners, and the Nevada Cattle and Sheep Associations combined. These Nevada funds were to be handled by the Nevada Rabies Commission. They appropriated a portion of this sum to be expended under the supervision of the Biological Survey dollar for dollar with the Federal Rabies appropriation. The Nevada Rabies Commission is composed of Governor Emmet D. Boyle, Carson City, Nevada, Dr. W. B. Mack of Reno, Mr. J. H. Clemmons of Reno, Mr. George Russell, Jr., of Elko, and Mr. W. M. McGill of Ely. This committee is to be commended for its untiring interest and energy in the great work undertaken.

The systematic organization and management of the field work has been handled by the staff of the Biological Survey at Winnemucca, composed of S. E. Piper, Assistant Biologist, E. R. Sans, Predatory Animal Inspector, R. A. Ward, Biological Assistant, and W. C. Newberry, Chief Clerk. Cooperation with livestock interests and the U. S. Forest Service has assisted materially in procuring for the Biological Survey reliable and efficient hunters, and also in generally increasing the effectiveness of the work. In fact, in Nevada the livestock interests have been largely responsible in the selection of these men.

PROGRESS OF THE WORK

In the effort to combat the spread of rabies, the Biological Survey now has about 143 hunters in Nevada. These men are devoting their time to poisoning, trapping, and den-hunting coyotes, bobcats, and other predatory animals, which are largely responsible for the spread of rabies, in addition to the havoc which they annually work among the live stock of the western ranges.

The results during April and May have been very satisfactory. In many localities, where the work has been in progress for several months, coyotes are a rare sight, many stockmen believing them to be practically wiped out in these sections. Several sheepmen have reported not losing a single lamb by coyotes on such ranges, where formerly the loss occasionally ran into hundreds. In the interior of the rabies district hunters and stockmen report a marked scarcity of coyotes, very few being taken in many localities, while on the border of the district, where the work has been in progress but a short time, several hunters still average a predatory animal a day.

That coyotes and bobcats can be well controlled by the Biological Survey is clearly demonstrated by the fact that during part of last October and November, fifteen government hunters destroyed 550 coyotes in Nevada, while during April, a force of about one hundred hunters destroyed 625 or an approximately equal number. In other words, it is apparent that coyotes soon become scarce after a wellorganized effort is made to exterminate them.

In any serious attempt to eradicate rabies, serious consideration must be given to the control of dogs. A glance at the records of the city · hospitals or laboratories giving the Pasteur treatment, shows over 90 per cent of the patients to have contracted the disease through the bites of dogs. The rapid distribution of rabies by rabid dogs who run for long distances is illustrated by the case of a bulldog, which went mad in San Francisco on April 21, 1912, and was shot in Half Moon

Bay the following day, twenty-five miles or more from his home. With dogs allowed to run uncontrolled, there is small hope of wiping out the rabies entirely. The restrictions and ordinances concerning dogs should be rigidly enforced. At present this enforcement in many localities in Nevada is exceedingly lax and should receive attention at once.

The cost of the work during the last two months is as follows: The total cost of operation for April and May is $13,527.15. This is apportioned as follows:

THE FIELD FORCE AND ITS ORGANIZATION

In northern Nevada the country is divided into 13 units or rabies districts, with from 12 to 15 hunters in each. A foreman is placed in charge of each district, whose business it is to travel over the district, spending a day or two with each hunter, seeing what he is doing and how he is doing it, offering suggestions for the improvement of the work wherever possible, and generally supervising the operations in his district.

Extensive poisoning is being carried on within these districts on government land, without regard for the safety of dogs, except that the stockmen and ranchers are advised that the poisoning is being done, and of the location of the poisoned lands.

Promiscuous and careless poisoning by those not thoroughly familiar with poisons cannot be too strongly condemned. In any general poisoning operations against predatory animals the work must be carried on with due regard for the safety of our fur-bearing animals and valuable predatory birds. The common practice of placing strychnine in large. carcasses, such as those of horses, sheep, and cattle, is especially to be avoided. If the coyote and bobcat are to be eliminated, we certainly need the services of hawks and owls, eagles and buzzards, in part to replace these predatory animals in destroying noxious rodents.

In our experience thus far small fatty tissue baits carrying No. 2