Risk of rabies by importing animals to South Korea

Rabies is one of the most dreadful diseases known to human. Annually, more than 55,000 human deaths occur throughout the world. The main transmitters are dogs. In South Korea, urban rabies is eliminated after massive national vaccine programme but rabies is still present in wildlife around northern part of the country near the border. Occasionally, rabies cases are still reported and there are spill over cases from racoon dogs. No human case was reported since 2005. Therefore, risk of rabies from exporting domestic dogs and cats from South Korea is very low. Hence, foreign rabies can be introduced by importing wild carnivores and unvaccinated dogs and cats under the age of three months since the South Korean legislation does not cover them. Therefore, it is essential to update current import regulation to minimise the risk of rabies.