Zoo meerkats test negative for rabies

[IrisHope]

Zoo meerkats test negative for rabies
Five of the popular animals euthanized after girl, 9, is bitten
BY MEGGEN LINDSAY
Pioneer Press

Public condolences poured into the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, as zoo visitors and staff mourned the deaths of an entire meerkat family.

Kids raced to the outdoor exhibit in Apple Valley and plastered their hands against the glass, only to find nothing inside. A small boy in a stroller wailed as his mother told him the creatures were away on vacation.

"This is a hard day. This was frustrating, sad and totally avoidable," said Tony Fisher, zoo collections manager. "People need to respect the barriers we put up to keep the public back. Instead, they try to climb over them, under them and around them."

The five meerkats were euthanized Thursday, a day after a 9-year-old girl reached her hand into the exhibit and was bitten.

The meerkats — two adults and their three babies born in spring — were vaccinated for rabies, but state health protocol required that they be killed and tested because the girl's parents didn't want her to undergo a series of six painful rabies shots.

The meerkats did not have rabies, tests done at the Minnesota Board of Animal Health showed Friday.


This is so sad.


http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/15202942.htm

[MLA]

If they were vaccinated, why on earth did they need to be killed?!? What a ridiculous policy! :mad:

How very, very sad. :(

[trefoil]

How sad and terrible!

I guess they'll have to put up more obstacles so that more animals don't have to die due to the stupidity of people. This must be so incredibly frustrating for the zoo.

[greenbunny]

They should have made the kid get the shots. Maybe then she would have something to remind her not to do stupid things that endanger animals. Rabies shots hurt, but it isn't permanent, like, you know, death.

While they're at it, maybe they could vaccinate her parents against being morons.

[msnicolea]

How sad.

[Rico'sAlice]

They should have made the kid get the shots. Maybe then she would have something to remind her not to do stupid things that endanger animals. Rabies shots hurt, but it isn't permanent, like, you know, death.

FWIW There is some risk of death and other permanent problems from the rabies shots. If it had been myself or my child- knowing that these were animals living in confinement who had previously gotten their own rabies shots- there is no way I would have consented to them. I would feel terrible for the animals, but would put the blame on the stupid policy and not my self.

Of course I can NOT imagine being so careless as to let my child get bitten in the first place. This way the article described the situation it definitely did not seem like the parents just looked away for a second. They should have had much closer tabs on her. For that they are completely to blame.

[greenbunny]

FWIW There is some risk of death and other permanent problems from the rabies shots.

Really? DH had to have them, and I don't remember being warning about that sort of thing! :mad:

[IrisHope]

Let's ask the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/vis/vis-rabies.pdf

[Rico'sAlice]

Really? DH had to have them, and I don't remember being warning about that sort of thing! :mad:

Have you ever been warned about the risks of any vaccine? Other than chance of mild fever or fussiness in babies?


Obviously "some" is a vague term and it's importance depends on how high the risk of infection is. I would definitely judge the situation differently if attacked by a wild animal.


Deaths reported in relation to rabies vaccine (http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?LOWAGE=&HIGHAGE=&SEX=&STATE=&PRIOR_VAX=&VAX_DATE_LOW=&VAX_DATE_HIGH=&CUR_ILL=&VAX=RAB&VAXDOSE=&VAXMAN=&VAXROUTE=&VAXLOT=&VAXSITE=&ONSET_DATE_LOW=&ONSET_DATE_HIGH=&REPORT_DATE_LOW=&REPORT_DATE_HIGH=&SYMPTOMS=&HISTORY=&L_THREAT=&ER_VISIT=&DIED=Yes&HOSPITAL=&DEATH_DATE_LOW=&DEATH_DATE_HIGH=&X_STAY=&RECOVD=&LAB_DATA=&DISABLE=&OTHER_MEDS=&V_ADMINBY=&V_FUNDBY=&PAGENO=1&PERPAGE=10)
Some of these deaths are caused by insufficient use of immune globulin so the patient actually died of rabies. But not in all cases. In one, the boy wasn't even bitten.

Symptoms: NEUROPATHY PARALYSIS
A 11 year old male child was vaccinated with three doses of Rabipur (days 0, 3, 7). The child died after the vaccination of neuroparalysis. The patient was vaccinated as a prophylactic measure by a local doctor, as his mother had died of suspected rabies seven days ago. The boy himself did not suffer from dog bite. No information on application of rabies specific immunoglobulin. The vaccination schedule used refers to post exposure treatment. We are awaiting further information.

rabies and "did not recover" (http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?PAGENO=14&PERPAGE=10&VAX=RAB&RECOVD=No)
Unfortunately, since people don't always make full reports, many of these are false hits.

A smaller pool is found under rabies, "life threatening" and "did not recover" (http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?LOWAGE=&HIGHAGE=&SEX=&STATE=&PRIOR_VAX=&VAX_DATE_LOW=&VAX_DATE_HIGH=&CUR_ILL=&VAX=RAB&VAXDOSE=&VAXMAN=&VAXROUTE=&VAXLOT=&VAXSITE=&ONSET_DATE_LOW=&ONSET_DATE_HIGH=&REPORT_DATE_LOW=&REPORT_DATE_HIGH=&SYMPTOMS=&HISTORY=&L_THREAT=Yes&ER_VISIT=&DIED=&HOSPITAL=&DEATH_DATE_LOW=&DEATH_DATE_HIGH=&X_STAY=&RECOVD=No&LAB_DATA=&DISABLE=&OTHER_MEDS=&V_ADMINBY=&V_FUNDBY=&PAGENO=1&PERPAGE=10)

You can search w/ whatever terms you prefer here:
http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/


Not sure how to get to the articles, I think you need to be hooked up through a University or something, but here are some abstracts for research papers on the relationship between rabies shots and demyelination (think in terms of Multiple Sclerosis)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Display&dopt=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=1971408


Here is the IMOVAX package insert:
http://www.whale.to/a/p/imovax.pdf

And the RabAvert package insert.
http://www.rabavert.com/inserthtml.html

[IrisHope]

I think tylenol has those warnings too.

[Rico'sAlice]

I think tylenol has those warnings too.

And there is a good reason for that!

Aside from the rare possibility of death from a one-time super OD, there is a more significant risk of taking a little too much over a long period of time and causing severe liver and/or kidney damage. Made worse by regular alcohol consumption.
I'm not telling you to be afraid of ever taking any Tylenol at all, (although I chose not to) but the warnings are not merely a CYA sort of thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol#Toxic_dose

Damage caused in adults by taking RECOMMENDED dosage for two weeks
http://www.newstarget.com/019555.html


Sorry, I really don't intend to turn this into some scaremongering thread.
Oddly enough there are lots of other things that people are afraid of (germs, raw meat & milk, Polio, moderate alcohol during PG, etc.) that don't scare me at all.

[ivansbabe]

I had the rabies vaccine (I remember it being very bright pink and thought that was kinda cool) and I was given no warnings either. I was going to another country so I had to be prepared just in case I was bit by something. It wasn't that bad, not any more painful than other shots.
I hope that stupid family learns a lesson here, but stupid people generally don't learn lessons, cause they're, well....stupid.

[artist]

I know. I saw something about this on our local news. So sad! Dumb they all had to be killed. And don't people watch their children more carefully when taking them to the zoo?

[wine_o_girlie]

Oh my god, the parents are the policy are both idiots.

[IrisHope]

agreed