Thanks Alan,that’s very informative. Brady
Skunks are commonly rabid too, if I see either in daylight hours, I will consider that animal rabid and take appropriate action like go the other way.
I have also read that skunks can carry rabies without suffering from it so should be treated with special care. Many of these animals like foxes and raccoons can have what I have heard called distemper . You will see them out in daylight and with no fear of humans, regardless of what they may have they should be hummainly put down .
Jason, this is a bit of a misnomer about skunks. They suffer the same symptoms of rabies as other mammals, and do not have the ability to be “rabies carriers”. Opossums appear to be more resistant to contracting rabies, but they also will exhibit the same symptoms and succumb to rabies as any other mammal. Skunks are one of the top animals that carry rabies in the wild: skunks, coyotes, foxes, bats, raccoons. All wild animals should be treated with special care, and especially these, as they are the most common carriers of rabies, so really, Ray did to the right thing for the right reasons, as depressing as it was for him. Symptoms of animals affected with rabies can vary, depending upon the stage of the disease. Things like nocturnal animals out during the day, agitation/aggressiveness, drooling, staggering or stumbling, self-mutilation (biting itself), disorientation. Some of these symptoms can also be indicative of Distemper, a different virus (extremely closely related to our human measles virus, and some researchers actually believe canine distemper virus may have mutated and become our human measles virus), but canine and other types of distemper cannot cause disease symptoms in humans. The human can be a carrier for distemper, though, and infect other animals.
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I know quite a few serious bridge players that carry distemper!
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I do rabies testing as part of my day job. Depending upon your location, there are predominating sylvatic(wildlife) strains of the virus… for instance… here in KY, North Central skunk and bat strains predominate; we’ve never had a rabid raccoon diagnosed in the state(yet), rarely a fox. Have not had a rabid cat diagnosed in the state in over 10 years; occasional dogs, and rarely, a horse or cow… those usually ‘type’ out to be the skunk strain.
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/wild_animals.html
When other species are infected with a host-adapted strain - for instance, if a dog becomes infected with the skunk strain - clinical signs are typically what lay people call the ‘dumb’ form… not the ‘furious’ Ol’ Yeller symptoms.
Apparently ‘normal’ animals caught in a trap are probably low risk… animals exhibiting abnormal behaviors, however, should be avoided - though most of those that I see (skunks, raccoons, coyotes, stray dogs) turn out to be canine distemper virus infections, rather than rabies.
As stated previously, it is ILLEGAL in many states to trap and relocate wildlife… for many good reasons. http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/relocating-wildlife/
Some states do allow release of live-captured wildlife, with restrictions - such as: must be in the same county, release site must be at least 40 acres in size, MUST have permission of landowner onto which you intend to release the trapped animal, etc.
Most, state wildlife/fish& game departments are involved in managing & studying populations of animals… and are not equipped to deal with individual creatures. Additionally, many if not most state wildlife divisions are funded almost entirely by fees generated from the sale of hunting/fishing licenses… so as fewer folks hunt and fish… they have fewer funds to support their activities/responsibilities.
Wildlife rehabbers have, I suppose, a big heart, but I often feel as though their efforts are misdirected - most of the creatures they save - squirrels, raccoons, deer - are NOT endangered or threatened species, and often are regarded as ‘nuisance’ animals - as many of us who attempt to grow gardens/orchards can attest. Human-acclimated/imprinted ‘wildlife’ may tend to be even more problematic.
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Very informative, the information that I read about skunks being a carrier was in a book about trapping. It is obviously dated information. Thanks for the link.
Here’s what the humane society has to say on the issue as far as danger to humans.
Given all the media attention that rabies regularly receives, it may be somewhat surprising to learn that very few people die from rabies nationwide each year. Over the past 10 years, rabies has killed only a total of 28 people in the U. S. This amounts to fewer than 3 fatalities a year nationwide.
People who contracted rabies in the United States were mostly infected by a bat. Most didn’t even know they were bitten. Some may have been sleeping when bitten. Others handled a bat bare-handed without realizing they’d been potentially exposed to rabies. But don’t panic over every bat sighting. Less than one-half of one percent of all bats in North America carries rabies.
Although raccoons suffer from rabies more than any other mammal in the United States (about 35 percent of all animal rabies cases), only one human death from the raccoon strain of rabies has been recorded in the United States.
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Thanks, Lucky, very informative. It is pretty rare to see a cat or dog with rabies, due to the very successful vaccinations here in California. It can happen of course, but much more likely to see rabies in a wild animal. And what Alan states is what I’ve read, medically. In fact, the last medical human case of rabies I read about was exactly this scenario - someone out camping, bit by a bat unknowingly. But, it is always wise to err on the side of caution, as human rabies cases are nearly 100% fatal. Here is a wonderful article about a briliant neurologist that saved a young girl’s life who was infected by rabies (from a bat bite):
http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/is_rabies_really_100_fatal