Subscribe
Community
Rabies cases are down, but threat persists in county
Raccoons, skunks main carriers
Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009
|
| ||
|
E-Mail This Article
Rabies cases in St. Mary's County are down this year, but that doesn't mean pet owners should let vaccinations lapse.
Ninety samples were collected last year for rabies testing; 33 tested positive.
As of last week, the St. Mary's County Health Department collected 37 samples, with only nine positive cases.
"This year we haven't seen the volume of specimens test positive than last year," Ann Rose, environmental health sanitarian supervisor with the health department, said on Thursday. "For all species we had nine positives for the year and only one fox."
The last time there were fewer than nine confirmed cases in the county was in 2003 with seven.
At last week's county commissioner meeting, President Francis Jack Russell (D) advised people to be wary of rabid foxes after a man was bitten on the boot in Tall Timbers. Russell said he was not trying to be an alarmist, but "if there's one around, there's probably more around," he said Thursday.
Four raccoons and three skunks tested positive for rabies so far this year, Rose said.
Last year, 13 skunks, 12 raccoons, six foxes tested positive — the usual mammal offenders.
But other animals can get it too. In St. Mary's in 1999, a groundhog tested positive. In 2002, there was a rabid cow. In 2006, there was a rabid horse, and last year a goat caught rabies.
This year, "we do have one specimen that may seem interesting — it was a kitten," Rose said. It was brought here from another county as a pet and died shortly thereafter.
Kittens can be vaccinated against rabies as early as 12 weeks old, she said.
On Nov. 18, 1965, two Navy men were bitten by a rabid kitten at North Patuxent Beach Road in California, according to an article in The Enterprise that December. They survived.
And while "this year's overall trend is a lower volume year," Rose said, "anyone should report an animal bite or an exposure," to a suspected rabid animal. Rabies attacks the brain and can only be tested in a dead animal.
Vaccinations for pets provide a barrier from rabies between wild animals and humans.
There have been at least two fatalities reported in St. Mary's County from rabies, one in 1764 and another in 1871.
