Measures to control an imported case of canine rabies in France.

France has been free from terrestrial rabies since 2001. On 21 August 2004, a female dog aged 4 months died in Gironde (south-west France), after experiencing clinical symptoms suggestive of rabies for 3 days. On 26 August, a diagnosis of rabies was confirmed by the Pasteur Institute. This paper describes the measures that were taken to manage the risks to human and animal health, and analyses the alert raised in France as a result of this imported case of rabies, the third such case in 2004.