♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ Good news for Slovenia! After years fighting against the disease, Slovenia successfully submitted last May to the OIE its self-declaration of freedom from rabies. The story of this success can be read pages 75 to 81 of the OIE Bulletin No. 2016-2. It includes detailed documentation on the history and epidemiological evolution of the disease, the eradication measures in domestic animals and the wildlife population, the rabies surveillance and monitoring, the import and trade procedures as well as the measures for disease awareness.  

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ [Relayed from the OIE bulletin 2016-2] Following the consensus reached at the global conference on rabies in Geneva in December 2015, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organization (WHO) have published a global framework for the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and with the support of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC). Their aim is to harmonise global action against the disease and to provide countries and regions with flexible and practical guidelines for reducing to zero, by the year 2030, the number of human deaths caused by canine rabies in participating countries. The proposed measures for achieving this target include mass vaccination of dogs in risk areas. The OIE has developed new communication tools to raise international community awareness of this zero human deaths target. See article page 20-21.  

♦ 28 September 2016 ♦ On 28 September 2016, on the occasion of World Rabies Day, WHO, OIE, and FAO published a joint statement to call on countries to accelerate efforts to combat rabies in three steps: Education, by raising awareness of rabies among at-risk populations, Vaccination, by implementing large-scale dog vaccination and ensuring prompt delivery of post-exposure treatment to humans in areas at risk of rabies and Elimination, by targeting a world free from dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030. Full statement is available on http://www.oie.int.  

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ Sad news for our community, as we heard that our colleague from Austria passed away beginning of September. She was an eminent scientist of our network who attended several times the annual workshop. We will remember her as a kind and discrete colleague. All our thoughts go to her family friends and Austrian colleagues.  

♦ 01 October 2016 ♦ A new website edited by the Tunisian Ministry of Health (DSSB) entirely dedicated to rabies in Tunisia and the ways to fight the disease is now online. Apart from usual general rabies information about the disease and the action to undertake in case of a bite, this website provides interesting information on the rabies epidemiology in Tunisia, the National Programme and the vaccination campaign ongoing in this country. This website is currently mainly in French and Arabic, but will be later extended to English language.

Note prepared by the EU RL for Honeybee Health (Laboratory of  Anses Sophia Antipolis) Updated news (29th. November 2016) To see the details of the outbreaks observed in 2015, please click here. 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ After a nice summer break, back to serious work! As usual the autumn season will be synonym of reports releases and international meetings… Enjoy these busy coming weeks!  

♦ 13 September 2016 ♦ The 2016 session of the inter-laboratory test for rabies diagnosis was undertaken by 54 laboratories, including 28 non-EUMS laboratories. The report is under proofreading and should be available at the end of this month. Caution! Each participating laboratory will receive an online satisfaction questionnaire regarding this test. Thank you to take time to fill it carefully.  

♦13 September 2016 ♦ The annual rabies EURL meeting gathered a total of 44 participants, among them 30 from the EU Member States and 10 from EU bordering countries. As usual, the meeting gave the opportunity for rabies scientists to meet all together ending with fruitful exchanges. The report of 8th workshop for rabies is now available online in the private part of the EURL for rabies website.  

♦ 13 September 2016 ♦ The last results for the 2016 session of the inter-laboratory test for rabies serology have now reached the EURL for rabies serology. Results and report will be communicated soon to the participating laboratories, as well as the European Commission and relevant authorities where necessary. This test is compulsory for the purposes of laboratories authorisations to carry out the serological tests to monitor the effectiveness of the anti-rabies vaccination. More information on http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/pet-movement/approved-labs/index_en.htm