Women spread rabies by not wearing fur, says Russian top vet says

The Russian Federal Agriculture Supervision Service is concerned about the increasing incidence of rabies in the country, RIA Novosti reports. According to Russia’s top veterinarian and deputy director of the agency Nikolay Vlasov, the problem has arisen because women are wearing less fur.

“Who is guilty in this?” Vlasov asked rhetorically at a press conference on Friday. “Women who have stopped wearing furs are guilty of it all, and hunters have therefore stopped shooting foxes.”

Vlasov also laid a share of the blame on farmers, who are working less land, leading to an increase in the rodents foxes feed on.

“The fox population is growing geometrically,” Vlasov said, and the spread of rabies is reaching a critical level. The official also noted that Russia has no federal program to battle the disease, unlike in Europe, which is entirely free of it.

Agriculture officials in Moscow and Moscow Region took steps against the disease earlier this year when they issued a statement urging pet-owners to have their pets immunized.

Officials noted at the time that cases of rabies had more than doubled in 2008 compared to the previous year, and 20 percent of the cases occurred in household pets.

There have been 13 human deaths from rabies in Moscow Region since 1987, the statement noted, and 9 of them have occurred in the last five years. Few of the victims sought medical aid. Nonetheless, 10,700 people were treated for animal bites in the Moscow area in the first five months of the year, chief epidemiologist for Moscow Region Olga Gavrilenko told RIAN.

There is a large population of stray dogs in the region, and that population is also growing, adding to the rabies threat.