Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, Taipei 10070, Taiwan.
Department of Statistics, National Chengchi University, Taipei 11605, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Jun 27;15(7):1347. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15071347.
On 17 July 2013, Taiwan confirmed multiple cases of the rabies virus (RABV) in the wild Taiwan Ferret badger (TFB) () member of the family . This study aims at investigating the risk factors for human exposure to rabid TFBs. Statistical inference based on Pearson correlation showed that there was a strong positive correlation between the total number of positive TFB rabies cases and the number of rabid TFBs involved with human activities in 81 enzootic townships ( = 0.91; < 0.001). A logistic regression analysis indicated that the risk probability of a human being bitten by rabid TFBs was significantly higher when there were no dogs around (35.55% versus 6.17% (indoors, = 171, = 0.0001), and 52.00% versus 5.26% (outdoors, = 44, = 0.021)), and whether or not there was a dog around was the only crucial covariate that was statistically significantly related to the risk of a human being bitten. In conclusion, this study showed the value of having vaccinated pets as a deterrent to TFB encounters and as a buffer to prevent human exposure to rabid TFBs. The presence of unvaccinated pets could become a significant risk factor in the longer term if rabies isn’t controlled in TFBs because of the spillover between the sylvatic and urban cycles of rabies. Consequently, raising dogs, as well as keeping rabies vaccinations up-to-date for them, can be considered an effective preventive strategy to reduce the risk for human exposure to rabid TFBs.
2013 年 7 月 17 日，台湾确认了多例野生台湾獾（TFB）（浣熊科）中的狂犬病病毒（RABV）病例。本研究旨在调查人类接触狂犬病 TFB 的风险因素。基于 Pearson 相关性的统计推断表明，在 81 个地方性流行乡镇中，阳性 TFB 狂犬病病例总数与涉及人类活动的狂犬病 TFB 数量之间存在很强的正相关（=0.91；<0.001）。逻辑回归分析表明，当周围没有狗时，人类被狂犬病 TFB 咬伤的风险概率显著增加（35.55%比 6.17%（室内，=171，=0.0001）和 52.00%比 5.26%（室外，=44，=0.021）），并且周围是否有狗是与人类被咬伤风险相关的唯一关键协变量。总之，本研究表明，给宠物接种疫苗具有阻止 TFB 接触和缓冲防止人类接触狂犬病 TFB 的价值。如果由于狂犬病在森林和城市循环之间溢出，而未能控制 TFB 中的狂犬病，那么未接种疫苗的宠物的存在可能会成为一个重要的风险因素。因此，养狗以及为其保持狂犬病疫苗接种的最新状态，可以被认为是减少人类接触狂犬病 TFB 风险的有效预防策略。
