Tu W.-JWang M.-CJau G.-CTsai C.-TLin C.-CInoue SButudom PLai C.-HANDREW C. Y. FEI2021-07-262021-07-2620201256491https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85100739590&partnerID=40&md5=352aa555c88abda60040bb160016b295https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/573145The World Health Organization declared Taiwan rabies-free in 1961. On July 17, 2013, Taiwan confirmed the detection of rabies virus in wild Formosan ferret-badgers. This study investigated the epidemiology of Formosan ferret-badger rabies from July 2013 to December 2019 on Taiwan Main Island. There were two objectives of this study: 1) to study the temporal dynamics of the epidemics during this period; 2) to assess the risk of human exposure to ferret-badger rabies. Results indicated that a total of 805 rabies-confirmed ferret-badgers and 9 cases of spillover infection in non-reservoir hosts. The temporal dynamics showed only the epidemic in Eastern Taiwan exhibited the typical initial epidemic growth pattern; while the epidemics in Western Taiwan and Southern Taiwan appeared to have subsided to enzootic levels as of December 2019. As for human exposure to ferret-badger rabies, all cases of human exposure at home appeared in only one ferret badger and usually occurred in the evening. During the exposures, if a dog were present, it would usually spot the rabid ferret-badger earlier than the attack of the rabid ferret-badger and rush to kill it. There were 48 cases indoors and 21 cases outdoors of human exposure. The relative risk (RR) for human exposure to rabid ferret-badgers without dogs around was 4.73 times that with dogs around indoors (n=214; p < 0.0001). The risk for human exposure to rabid ferret-badgers without dogs around was 12.63 times that with dogs around outdoors (n=62; p < 0.05). In conclusion, the study showed that keeping dogs could protect people from suddenly unprovoked attacks by rabid ferret-badgers. The distribution of epidemic cases indicated that ferret-badger rabies was still sequestered to the mountainous regions. Dogs and cats should be vaccinated to establish an immunological barrier to stop the spread of the disease. ? 2020 Chulalongkorn University Printing House. All rights reserved.virus antigen; animal experiment; animal tissue; Article; brain tissue; direct fluorescent antibody technique; dog; epidemic; incidence; Melogale moschata; nonhuman; post exposure prophylaxis; rabies; risk assessment; risk factor; vaccination[SDGs]SDG3virus antigen; animal experiment; animal tissue; Article; brain tissue; direct fluorescent antibody technique; dog; epidemic; incidence; Melogale moschata; nonhuman; post exposure prophylaxis; rabies; risk assessment; risk factor; vaccinationjournal article2-s2.0-85100739590