Thanks to an increase in pet vaccinations, wildlife now account for more than 90 percent of all reported rabies cases.

If you handle a pet who has been in a fight with a potentially rabid animal, take precautions such as wearing gloves to keep any still-fresh saliva from getting into an open wound.Īny warm-blooded mammal can carry or contract rabies, but the primary carriers in North America are raccoons, skunks, bats, foxes and coyotes.

The rabies virus is short-lived when exposed to open air-it can only survive in saliva and dies when the animal's saliva dries up.

People can get rabies only via a bite from a rabid animal or possibly through scratches, abrasions, open wounds or mucous membranes in contact with saliva or brain tissue from a rabid animal.

Rabies can't go through unbroken skin.

Rabies travels from the brain to the salivary glands during the final stage of the disease-this is when an animal can spread the disease, most commonly through a bite.

If a typically nocturnal animal, such as a raccoon or skunk, is active during the day and exhibiting abnormal behavior, you should seek advice from your local animal control, animal organization, wildlife rehabilitator or state wildlife agency. There are few behavioral signs that are telltale of rabies alone. However, most of these signs can also be indicative of other diseases like distemper or lead poisoning. There are other signs, such as the animal appearing drunk or excessively wobbly, circling, seeming partially paralyzed, acting disorientated or mutilating itself. In the 'dumb' form, wild animals may appear tame and seem to have no fear of humans. In the 'furious' form, wild animals may appear to be agitated, bite or snap at imaginary and real objects and drool excessively. Because it affects the nervous system, most rabid animals behave abnormally. Rabies is not transmitted through the blood, urine or feces of an infected animal, nor is it spread airborne through the open environment. It's transmitted through the saliva a few days before death when the animal 'sheds' the virus. Rabies (Lyssavirus) is an infectious disease that affects the central nervous system in mammals.

Get prompt post-exposure treatment when advised to do so by a doctor or health department.

Don't approach or handle wild animals, especially sick wild animals.

But this doesn't mean you shouldn't take precautions to protect yourself, your family and your pets. Thanks to widespread pet vaccinations, effective post-exposure treatment and the relative rarity of undetected bites by rabid animals, the number of human deaths from rabies in the United States caused has declined to an average of only one or two per year-far less than the number of human fatalities caused by lightning strikes.

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