It is still present in 150 counties around the world and about 3 billion people live in regions where infections occur.
Most small island nations are virtually rabies free and also Switzerland managed to almost completely eradicate the viral disease.
The Swiss discovered that foxes were the main source of rabies in the country. Dogs are easy to vaccinate, but to get hold of an entire fox population living mostly in the Swiss Alps, is another matter entirely!
If you have ever read European folk tales or even just tried to raise chickens in an area with a fox population, you will know that foxes just love eating chicken. Instead of catching and wrestling with rabid foxes to get them vaccinated, Swiss scientists came up with an idea that is genius in its simplicity.
Chickens were slaughtered and the chicken heads were laced with live attenuated vaccine. Those chicken heads were then placed in the Swiss Alps and the foxes, unable to resist chicken, devoured all the chicken heads offered to them - thereby unknowingly becoming immune to the rabies virus!
