As the weather continues to warm, more people head out to enjoy the outdoors. With those excursions, the possibility for contact with wildlife increases, as does the chance a wild animal may be sick.
Rabies is one of the most serious diseases wild mammals can harbor and transmit to humans, and it can be lethal.
“Rabies is a virus of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) that can affect any mammal and is widespread throughout Pennsylvania,” according to the Pennsylvania’s website guide to foodborne and animal-transmitted illnesses. “Rabies is a great public health concern because it can be transmitted to humans by the bite of infected animals and is nearly 100% fatal without post-exposure treatment.”
Rabies only affects mammals: warm-blooded animals, which includes humans. Birds, snakes, and fish are not mammals and therefore cannot get rabies or give it to humans.
Sgt. Shawna M. Burkett, game warden group supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s southeast region, says the best plan is not to have any interaction with wildlife if it can be avoided.
That’s not always possible, as Hersheypark opening day attendees recently found out. A raccoon caused a stir when it wandered into the line of people waiting to board a roller coaster on March 29, 2024. It became frightened according to video of the incident posted April 4 by TMZ and then appeared to attack the shoe of a girl.
Two people were taken to a hospital for observation after injuries that were “generally consistent with scratches from an animal” according to Quinn Bryner, director of public relations at Hersheypark.
“There has been no indication that rabies was implicated in the incident at Hersheypark,” Bryner responded when asked if any raccoons had been destroyed since the incident.
The raccoon shown in the video was not captured and was not tested for rabies.
Rabies prevalence
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Health & Diagnostic Services statistics, there were 252 confirmed cases of rabies in Pennsylvania in 2023.
“Rabies detections in PA wild mammals have been fairly consistent over the years; I cannot point to any significant trends over the last five years that deviate from expectations,” said Dr. Andrew Di Salvo, a wildlife veterinarian who is the wildlife health division chief for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “Raccoons consistently have the most rabies detections, followed by skunks, fox, and bats (not always in that order). We occasionally see detections in other wild mammals, like groundhogs/woodchucks, bear, bobcat, and deer.”
The species that tested positive for rabies most often in Pennsylvania in 2023 was raccoons, with 102 cases. The second highest number of cases was detected in bats, with 61, then cats came in at third with 40 cases, foxes in fourth with 19 and skunks in fifth with 14.
The southeast region of PGC, which is comprised of Berks, Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Schuylkill counties had the highest concentration of rabies cases.
Philadelphia County had the most cases with 17, followed by Lancaster with 16, Montgomery with 12, Chester with 12, Berks with 10, Delaware with nine, Dauphin with nine, Bucks with six, Lehigh and Northampton counites with five. Lebanon county had two confirmed cases, while Schuylkill had just one.
Pennsylvania rabies cases reported between January and April 2024. (Courtesy of the PA Department of Agriculture)
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s March 2024 county-by-county rabies report map. (Courtesy of the PA Department of Agriculture)
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It is important to note that animals are not tested for rabies unless there has been human contact. There is no way to test a live animal for rabies. It must be euthanized and a sample of its brain tissue must be tested the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnositic Laboratory System states.
“People try to help and they end up not helping the outcome they would like,” Burkett, who has been a game warden for 12 years, said.
When humans interact with wildlife, it can end up in the death of the animal, even if it does not have rabies.
“I found that of the 86,676 calls that were logged by officers across the state last year, there were 1,147 dealing with a potential human contact rabies case, and an additional 181 with domestic animals,” Burkett wrote in an email. “We handled 1,621 other calls dealing with small animals that were not listed as a human exposure. Basically some of those 1,621 could have been injured by a car, or sick but not tested, etc.”
The state says the last case of rabies diagnosed in a human was in 1984.
According to a March 8, 2023 article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association, Texas (with 456), Virginia (297), Pennsylvania (287), North Carolina (248), New York (237), California (220) and New Jersey (201) accounted for more than 50% of all rabies cases reported in 2021 in the United States.
That report also says there were five human rabies deaths in 2021 in the U.S.
The World Health Organization says dogs are the main source of rabies deaths worldwide.
A 2018 photograph of a young gray fox. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Signs of rabies in animals
Knowing what signs may indicate an animal is infected with rabies is key to avoiding contracting it.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, signs of rabies in animals include: fearfulness, aggression, excessive drooling, difficulty swallowing, staggering, paralysis and seizures.
“In my professional experience — I have not encountered a rabid animal off duty — professionally usually what happens is the citizen will call and say that an animal is acting sickly or it doesn’t look right, is not responsive maybe,” Burkett, a Bethlehem resident, said. “So game wardens will report to that area and they will assess the situation. Rabies can’t be detected unless we submit the brain of an animal to a lab. We have a pretty good idea if the animal is sick and needs to be euthanized.”
She noted there are two different presentations of rabies: furious and paralytic. The paralytic form is also referred to as “dumb” rabies.
The furious form of rabies is what people may think of most often: aggression, excessive salivation because the swallowing muscles are affected (can create the appearance of foaming at the mouth), fear of water, fear of air being blown in the face, fever and losing fear of humans according to The Cleveland Clinic. In the paralytic form, animals and humans will have a fever, neck stiffness, weakness, paralysis and coma.
“I would say most of the animals we encounter as wardens are going to be the paralytic variety,” Burkett said. “Very rarely have I seen a situation where it is furious rabies. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve experienced that and I can tell you that it is incredibly scary for the people that have experienced that.”
Seeing an animal out during the day that is normally seen at night, such as a coyote or fox, is not necessarily a sign of rabies, but if it approaches a human or another animal, that is when to be alarmed.
A July 25, 2022, attack of a woman by a rabid gray fox in Caroline, New York, was caught on video and the small mammal was relentless. The video and an interview with the victim, Sherri Russo, appeared on “Inside Edition.”
Seeing a bat on the ground or inside a home may be an indication of rabies or if one is very active during daylight hours.
A 2010 study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s National Library of Medicine indicated aggression was the top symptom observed by people in coyotes that were found positive for rabies.
How do you get rabies?
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture offered the most concise list of methods humans contract rabies.
• A direct bite from a contagious rabid mammal.
• A scratch from a rabid mammal that breaks the skin.
• Saliva or neural tissue from a contagious rabid animal contacting an open wound or break in the skin.
• Saliva or neural tissue from a contagious rabid animal contacting mucus membranes such as the eyes, nose or mouth.
What to do if you suspect an animal has rabies
If you have been bitten by an animal you believe may have been rabid, call the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 877-PA HEALTH. Responses are provided seven days a week. Wash the bite area immediately with soap and water.
If a sick animal is encountered, as Burkett suggested, stay away from it and keep pets away from it.
“If you must touch it, you must wear gloves,” Burkett said. “Call us first or a wildlife rehabber so we can give proper guidance. Any mammal is a potential threat to a person.”
Even if a person does not have direct contact with a suspected rabid animal, a human could potentially contract it from a vaccinated pet who tangled with a rabid animal. As an example, Burkett said if a dog got saliva from a rabid animal on its coat and the owner pets or checks the dog and gets the saliva on a hand and then touches their eye, the disease could be transmitted.
“We can’t make a determination if a person has been exposed or not, but in my experience, I err on the side of caution,” she said and advised anyone with a concern to seek advice of a health professional on receiving post-exposure rabies vaccines.
Resources
Pennsylvania Game Commission centralized dispatch center: 833-PGC-HUNT (833-742-4868) or 833-PGC-WILD (833-742-9453)
Pennsylvania Association of Wildlife Rehabilitators website: www.pawr.com
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture: 610-489-1003 x118
Pennsylvania Department of Health: 877-PAHEALTH
Bucks County Health Department: 215-345-3336
Chester County Health Department: 610-344-6452
Delaware County Health Department Wellness Line: 484-276-2100
Montgomery County Office of Public Health: 610-278-5117
