Rabies Threatens Ethiopian Wolf

by Sherry Morse

The Ethiopian Wolf, considered the world’s rarest dog, has been hard hit by a recent rabies outbreak.
The recent outbreak has been centered at the Bale Mountains national park in southeastern Ethiopia which is home to three hundred of the wolves.

So far twenty of the estimated total population of five hundred wolves have died, with more expected to succumb to the virus.

Stuart Williams, coordinator of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme in Addis Ababa said, "We should be moving to vaccinate the wolves."

Without vaccination Williams estimates up to three-quarters of the wolves could die, as happened during a rabies outbreak in 1991. At that time the population dropped from an estimated 450 wolves to just 120 animals.

With government assistance Williams hopes to begin vaccinating the wolves by early November. Previously, however, the Ethiopian government has been reluctant to allow the wolves to be vaccinated.

A rabies vaccination program for wild dogs in the Serengeti received bad publicity after the animals died out from distemper after receiving the rabies vaccine.
The wolf population only recently recovered from that last outbreak with diseases like rabies appearing to become more rampant when the population rises above a density of one wolf per square kilometer.

Based on a computer model designed in 2002 scientists believe it might be possible to prevent the wolves’ extinction by vaccinating only twenty percent to forty percent of the known population.

Williams believes an immigrant dog is responsible for this latest outbreak as all domestic dogs within ten miles of the park have been vaccinated for rabies since 1996 in an effort to help protect the wolves.

In August and September each year, farmers from the area move their livestock into the wolves’ territory for grazing and their dogs come with them. Contact between the dogs and wolves help spread the disease.

The Ethiopian wolf is a relative of the grey wolf which is found in Europe, America and Asia. In the last fifty years disease the spread of agriculture and political stability have increased the risk of extinction for the wolves.

The wolves have also been found to be breeding with domestic dogs, which also threatens their continued existence.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.