Rabies Concerns Rise with Temperatures

With warmer temperatures and more hours of daylight, people are spending more time outdoors -- and the potential for contact with wildlife increases, health officials say.

Raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats, as well as feral cats, can carry the rabies virus, which is found in the saliva and nervous tissue of an infected animal. Transmission can occur through an animal bite, or if saliva comes in contact with an open wound, or a person's eyes, nose or mouth.

Here are simple precautions that you can take:

• Don't feed, touch or adopt wild animals, stray dogs or cats. Enjoy wildlife from a distance. If you see an animal that is sick, injured or orphaned, call an animal control officer or a wildlife rehabilitator. Do not handle the animal yourself.
• Vaccinate your pets. Be sure your pet dogs, cats and ferrets as well as horses and valuable livestock animals are up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations. Pets too young to be vaccinated should be kept indoors and allowed outside only under direct observation.
• Keep family pets indoors at night. Don't leave them outside unattended or let them roam free.
• Don't attract wild animals to your home or yard. Keep your property free of stored bird seed or other foods that may attract wild animals. Feed pets indoors. Tightly cap or put away garbage cans.
• Get wild animals removed from your home. If nuisance wild animals are living in parts of your home, consult with a nuisance wildlife control expert about having them removed.
• Teach children not to touch any animal they do not know and to tell an adult immediately if they are bitten by any animal.
• Let wild animals wander away if they are on your property. Bring children and pets indoors and alert neighbors who are outside.
• Report all animal bites or contact with wild animals to your local health department. If possible, do not let any animal escape that has possibly exposed someone to rabies.

“While wildlife and feral cats may account for a significant number of required rabies treatments, the number-one reason for treatments in Putnam County remains bats,” said Michael Nesheiwat, M.D., Interim Commissioner of Health.

As the weather warms, bats return to the local area and are more active and likely to get into homes.

“A bat found in the home should be captured since testing it for rabies is the only way to avoid unnecessary treatment, a two week series of shots. Since 2014, over 200 bats have been brought to the Putnam County Department of Health for testing, a sign that the capture-the-bat message is getting out,” added Dr. Nesheiwat.

To safely capture a bat, watch the popular demo from the New York State Department of Health, available on the Putnam County website.

To learn more about rabies in both humans and animals, contact the Centers for Disease Control at 1-800- CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636), or visit www.cdc.gov/rabies.