It's worth pointing out that rabies vaccinations are already mandatory here in the States, and dogs that are meant for resale or adoption are required to have rabies vaccination certificates in English from a vet in the origin country... so effectively, it is illegal to own a dog older than 4-6 months that isn't vaccinated against rabies. The problem that sometimes occurs is that vets in other countries falsify the vaccine certificates, leading the infected animal to enter the country under the guise of being immune. I agree that rabies titre tests should be standard as a failsafe measure; this has happened enough times that it should be required, and given the risk this disease poses to humans failsafes and redundancies are not trivial things IMO. That being said, I *do* think - given the speed of American bureaucracy - it might be worth pausing stray and rescue imports from affected countries for a period of time while laws are passed and a new system is implemented to fix this problem. The real question is whether that ends up happening over the next year; the press release put out by the CDC doesn't give a lot of clarity there as far as I can tell. I don't think it's that surprising, really. The US has more wild vectors for rabies than the EU does (both in terms of species and populations) and much larger areas of wilderness. The US still only sees about 1-3 domestically originated cases of rabies per year now (much lower than in the past) with ~85% of those deriving evenly from bats, raccoons, and skunks - all of which are abundant and difficult to manage. Canada, despite also a highly developed/high-income nation, has also not eliminated rabies from their wild mammals (although their frequency is even lower than ours). As an aside, how is rabies considered "eradicated" in a country if native bats in that country remain a potential vector? People and other animals can still contract rabies from wild bats... I don't know the exact statistics, but I do know that the demand for rescue dogs in northern states outstrips the supply in local shelters. This gap is often filled with periodic transfers of rescue dogs from shelters in southern states where the rescue population is often larger than capacity, resources, or demand can handle; however, perhaps even that isn't enough to meet the country's total demand.
My guess is this ban by CDC will stay long term, at least that is my interpretation. The only amendment I could see would be implementation of streemlined extemptions for guide/army/police dogs (because all dog imports are banned now, not only rescued strays). Bat rabies is considered separate. First, we know no strategy yet how we could eliminate it among bats (unlike oral baits for terrestrial mammalian vectors). Second, number of documented bat-mediated infections to humans or domesticated animals is low, around 1 case every 3-5 years for the whole Europe. Third, bat rabies strains seem unable to become endemic in other mammals. The US imports over 1 mio dogs from abroad annually according to an official estimate years old, might be significantly more now. US shelters still euthanize some dogs, usually in southern states. To the tune of 150.000 last year (but this includes ill and aggressive dogs too) and 250.000 in year 2019. US rescue organisations are getting better at logistics of mentioned transfers from south to north. Total demand seem to outstrip available dogs for rehoming several times.
There are different genotypes of lyssaviruses, with classical rabies as genotype 1. When a country is declared "rabies-free", it means that this genotype is absent in the urban or sylvatric local cycle. Bat-associated genotypes such as European bat lyssavirus 1& 2, Duvenhage or Bokeloh lyssavirus might still be prevalent among certain bat species in this country, but given the few number of cases and difficulty to exterminate within the native hosts, their control is more tricky. At least at the moment. Let's just hope a genotype such as Mokola lyssavirus, for which no vaccine currently exists, is not spread beyond its native habitat just because someone from the other site of the world wants to import an infected pet from there...
