Sporadic Animal Rabies in Florida

Rabies in wildlife and domestic animals has been the subject of intensive study in Florida during the past 5 years. Vaccination and local quarantine have been credited with reducing the number of rabid animals encountered and have almost eliminated endemic rabies in dogs. Sporadic cases in wildlife...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public health reports (1896) 1960-10, Vol.75 (10), p.945-953
Main Authors: Scatterday, James E., Schneider, Nathan J., Jennings, William L., Lewis, Arthur L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bats
Cats
Dogs
Florida
Foxes
Humans
Infections
Kittens
Livestock
Old Medline
Rabies
Rabies - transmission
Rabies Vaccines
Skunks
Zoonoses
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Summary:Rabies in wildlife and domestic animals has been the subject of intensive study in Florida during the past 5 years. Vaccination and local quarantine have been credited with reducing the number of rabid animals encountered and have almost eliminated endemic rabies in dogs. Sporadic cases in wildlife have assumed major importance. Sporadic cases of rabies are believed to be related to an inapparent reservoir in nature. The quest for a reservoir was intensified after the infection was found to be widespread in insectivorous bats. Isolated cases of rabies in dogs, house cats, foxes, raccoons, and skunks were investigated for clues to the existence of an inapparent reservoir of the disease. Three hypotheses were suggested by the evidence at hand. First, there is the possibility that the bat or some other small mammal species is the primary reservoir and may infect carnivores directly. Second, it is possible that some of our recognized vector species support enzootic rabies which goes undetected because of irregularities in surveillance, or because of the usually benign behavior of rabid individuals. A third possibility is that several different species of wild carnivores together maintain temporary transmission chains for enzootic rabies, but the patterns of transfer within a species or between species are not clear. Present data in Florida indicate that dogs, foxes, and, possibly, raccoons support epizootic rabies; bats may support epizootic rabies, while house cats and skunks apparently do not. The possibility of there being some wildlife reservoir for rabies in Florida has been suggested; further study to determine its identity and mode of transmission of the infection is indicated.
ISSN:0094-6214
DOI:10.2307/4590966