Berry suffers rabies scare

Calf at field trip farm tested positive for deadly virus

Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010

State health officials are warning area residents — including students and staff from Berry Elementary School in Waldorf — who came into contact with a rabid calf at a farm in Accokeek to seek immediate medical attention.

In Charles County, school and health department officials have contacted nearly 70 people potentially exposed.

The health departments in Prince George's and Charles counties are in search of anyone who might have been exposed to a Jersey cow at the Hard Bargain Farm between Dec. 21 and Jan. 12 after the calf tested positive for the rabies virus.

The Prince George's health department said Sunday as many as 150 people could have been exposed during visits to the farm, which serves as an educational training facility for the Washington, D.C., region.

The number includes farm staff, students and faculty from Samuel Chase Elementary School in Temple Hills, Berry Elementary and high school and college students from the Student Conservation Association in Arlington, Va.

Some 17 people from those groups have already been vaccinated, said Donald Shell, health officer for Prince George's County.

Katie O'Malley-Simpson, spokeswoman for Charles County's public schools, said two fifth-grade groups, 50 students and about 20 chaperones including two teachers, from Berry were at the farm in early January.

O'Malley-Simpson said the first group had the most exposure to the calf because the second trip, consisting of 22 students and nine adults, had its trip cut short due to snow.

The parents of the potentially exposed students and adult chaperones were contacted by a voice recorded message Sunday after the school system and staff at the Charles County Department of Health was made aware of the situation.

Additional phone calls and e-mails were sent Sunday and Monday to those parents and adults the health department had not heard from, according to O'Malley-Simpson.

By Tuesday afternoon, O'Malley-Simpson said all but one had been contacted.

According to Bill Leebel, public information officer with the Charles County health department, 13 were sent to an emergency room for either treatment or further evaluation as of Tuesday morning. O'Malley-Simpson said one more, for a total of 14 had been sent for treatment.

O'Malley-Simpson said of the 14, there was one adult and 13 students.

The health department conducted an initial investigation by contacting the people in question and asked about whether or not the student or adult made any contact with the calf, according to Leebel.

Leebel said the emergency room was recommended for those the health department felt needed treatment or further evaluation because those facilities are equipped to treat rabies.

He said all area hospitals were notified of the incident.

O'Malley-Simpson said Berry staff sent a general message to the school community advising parents and community members of the situation.

Additionally, Berry Principal Darryl Evans will hold a meeting at 7 tonight regarding the situation.

Representatives at the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which runs the farm, said in a statement that "potential exposure to the infected calf was limited due to the fact that it had only been at the farm for a month and because of limited visitor programs over the holiday seasons." The foundation added that it was the first incident of its kind the history of the organization.

Rabies is a deadly disease caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system and is transmitted in the saliva of infected animals.

Visitors who petted the calf or fed it may have been exposed, and they should receive the vaccine as soon as possible, Shell said.

The disease is prevented with a four-dose rabies vaccine series administered over a 14-day period and a dose of rabies immunoglobulin given at the beginning of the series.

Shell said the incubation period for the virus can be as short as five days and as long as a year. Symptoms often include fever, headaches, sore throat, pain and hallucinations; however, Shell said, by the time symptoms manifest it is already too late.

"Rabies is an unusual virus in that if a person develops symptoms it is beyond curable," he said.

Farm workers noticed that the calf, which was tan with small white spots, had been acting strangely Jan. 12, when in a matter of hours it went from walking "wobbly" to not being able to walk at all. Shell said the staff thinks it was bitten by a rabid raccoon which had been seen on the farm.

The calf was quickly separated from the farm's general population and was euthanized over the weekend when a test confirmed it had rabies. No other animals on the farm have tested positive for the virus, he said.

Anyone who might have been exposed to the calf is asked to call the Prince George's Health Department at 240-508-5774 or the Charles County Department of Health at 240-216-4055 or 240-299-2693.

gphillips@somdnews.com

To learn more

Berry Elementary School will hold a rabies information session 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at the school, 10155 Berry Road, Waldorf.

Representatives from the Charles County Department of Health, Charles County Public Schools and Berry will be available to discuss information about rabies and treatment as well as answer questions.