Anything For Animals

posted by admin on May 20

Animal Carriers of the Rabies Virus.

Rabies can spread through ANY type of mammal population in any country; so both wildlife and domestic pets are at risk.

Although any mammal can become infected, it is usually the following groups that pass the virus onto humans and domestic animals:

Carnivorous (meat eating) animals
All cat and dog species (foxes, wolves) as well as vampire bats.

Insectivorous (insect-eating) animals
Usually only bat species (but there are lots of bat species!!!).

Omnivorous (a bit of everything) animals
Including neighbourhood pests (raccoons, skunks, squirrels) and monkeys.

Generally in any region, there will be the most common vectors for the disease - those animals that are most likely to carry the virus and pass it on to humans and domestic animals. In Europe it is the Fox, in the North America it’s the Raccoon, South America is the domestic dog, as with Asia. However there are always many other wild mammals that could become infected with the virus by one of these and then become the carrier themselves.

90% of reported rabies cases last year were in wild animals, with the most of the recent cases in the U.S being from infected bats. Worldwide, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported 55,000 human cases of rabies last year alone, mostly children being bitten by dogs.

Can I get rabies from a rat bite?
Do squirrels have rabies?
Do chipmunks get rabies??

Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice and chipmunks) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States.

You can still pick up all sorts of other nasty things from a wild animal bite - including tetanus - so any bite should be flushed and treated as soon as possible, and if you are regularly in close quarters with wild animals, you would be best advised to have any recommended vaccinations and take extra care at all times.

How do you tell if a bat has rabies?
Bats are also common mammals who spread rabies, but most do not appear to or actually have the disease. Unfortunately, you cannot tell if a bat has rabies just by looking at it; rabies can only be confirmed with laboratory testing, usually only after it has bitten someone and been caught!

To minimize the risk, it is best never to handle any bat, or try to corner or get too close to a trapped bat. In the UK, (which is classed as rabies free due to its strict quarantine measures), you are not legally allowed to handle a bat or approach and disturb a bat roost. You must report any ‘found’ or ‘injured’ bats to the Bat Conservation Society, who will help catch or dispose of the animal safely and legally.

Mammals which spread rabies:
Raccoons continued to be the most frequently reported rabid wildlife species (37.7% of all animal cases during 2006), followed by bats (24.4%), skunks (21.5%), foxes (6.2%), and other wild animals, including rodents and lagomorphs (0.6%).

Cattle, horses, deer and other herbivores (grass and plant eaters) can become infected with rabies and although they could potentially transmit the virus to other animals and to people, this rarely occurs.

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