Here's a real eye opener for you

[OYE]

When you are out and about hunting small game, furbearers, or just dealing
with problem animals, here's a real eye opener for you. A rabies incidence map from 2009. OYE


http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/resources/publications/2009-surveillance/rabid-animals.html

 

[wankerjake]

Go Arizona!

 

[Flintknapper]

Looking at the map...I am struggling to understand the disparity between the VERY low numbers seen in Louisiana and Missisippi versus the other Southern States.

I can't imagine the incidence of rabid animals would be appreciably less in reality.

So, what happened?

1. Fewer animals were actually 'reported'
2. Fewer animals were actually 'tested'
3. The animals went in the cooking pot anyway?

 

[OYE]

Your guess is as good as mine. If you click on the Terrestrial Rabies Reservoir link in the bottom left, it may offer a clue. Since they are dealing with government employees from one area reporting to government employees in another area, it's probably understandable there will be holes in the reported data. In the rural areas, suspected rabid animals are often shot and disposed of, if there was no obvious exposure to pets or humans. OYE

 

[Art Eatman]

I see that southwest Texas shows little to no problem. The only test of which I know in Terlingua was on a guy's pet javelina that bit a Census lady. (No rabies found; Piggie was just doing his job as a watch-pig.)

Down in south Texas, some years back, there was enough rabies in foxes, coyotes and raccoons that they did air drops of some sort of dog-food-ish bait with an oral vaccine in it. It seemed to have worked rather well.

 

[Flintknapper]

You are exactly right Art.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/us-rabies-texas-idUSTRE80G2B320120117

They have used that method for a quite a few years now (not every year) and it has proved quite successful.

Now... if we could just find something economically feasible to kill fire ants!

 

[Rob96]

It'd be nice if I could see PA underneath all of that yellow.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Arizona excels yet again.

Pride abounds!

Gots-ta be all them damn chupacabra!

Holy Cow, are there some amazing tables and studies if you follow various links. Thanks for the post OYE.

Todd.

 

[Art Eatman]

Far aints? I use a two-gallon flower sprinkler. The kind with a 3" diameter spout with little holes in it.

In five gallons of water, I use 3/4 cup of the cheapest liquid soap and 3/4 cup of gasoline.

It usually takes maybe a gallon for a mound; more if it's a large mound.

 

[Flintknapper]

^^^^^^^^

Far aints?

Yes.

But had I used the 'correct' pronunciation (Texas style), many of our readers would have been left scratching their heads.

 

[gamestalker]

Up until now, I was always under impression that Arizona was probably one of the worst.

Back in the 80's I punctured my hand when skinning a yote, and when I asked the Pima County Health folks if I was at risk, they freaked out and had me bring the head in for analyses. From what I understand though, at that particular time there was an apparent rabies epidemic, very high rate of infection. Guess not so much these days.

GS

 

[Paradactal]

That's actually pretty scary. That's the first reports like that I've seen

 

[Sol]

Holy eastern seaboard batman...or maybe ratman.

 

[Rusty59]

It would be cool if they made a version of this that was like google earth, you would be able to zoom in and out and see which section of what state is the worst, thanks for posting this OYE

 

[clearcut]

Just look up rabies in your own county you may be as startled as I was,3 rabid skunks 4 miles away.
CC

 

[MCgunner]

Looking at the map...I am struggling to understand the disparity between the VERY low numbers seen in Louisiana and Missisippi versus the other Southern States.

I'm guessing the cajuns ate all the rabid animals. They're easier to catch.

 

[Kingcreek]

In our area bats are the most common carrier of rabies with 4-6% typically testing positive.
My 1909 hay barn will have hundreds of bats in and around it during the summer. I leave em alone and try to get my chores done before dark.

 

[OYE]

Be careful around the bats. Looks like, in the last few decades, most human cases that go untreated and are fatal, are bat related. The bites often are hard to see without magnification. Apparently there has been a couple of fatalities where there was no evidence of a bite but the victims were often in close proximity to roosting bats.

Sick bats can often be very aggressive. I've been attacked 3 different times during daylight hours by bats that were extremely difficult to drive off. And had several instances when turning lights on in an old barn ( where bats were not known to roost) that they flapped all around my head. Could have easily been bitten any of those times.

In your case with hundreds of bats roosting, some are certainly carrying rabies.
There are always a few old cats around as well, and they aren't likely to pass up a free meal. So there is always that risk to think of. You can't be too careful around those guys. OYE

 

[BobbyV]

Back from 1995-2000 I worked on the Navajo Reservation and part of my job was investigating dog bites and giving rabies shots to cats and dogs. We did a decent job at vaccinating many pets and even a few strays. Back then we mainly heard about rabid bats and very few rabid varmints.

Not sure about today.

 

[Ranger Roberts]

Whoever said that the North East was made up of mainly blue states was very wrong, it looks pretty darn yellow on this map!!

 

[J-Bar]

Clicking on the hot link to the lower left of the map brings up this map...it shows skunks and foxes are the problem in the Midwest, raccoons along the eastern seaboard. However, bats should also be shown as a high risk reservoir.

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/resources/publications/2009-surveillance/reservoirs.html

 

[Kingcreek]

all known positives in our county for years have been bats but I don't think they test much of anything else. (If they don't test any, there won't be any positives!)
a few years ago I cam back to the house for lunch at 12 noon and found a raccoon staggering around in circles in the driveway. I drove the tractor over near it and it attacked the front tire. I gave it a fatal dose of 6000 pound tractor while being careful not to destroy the head and called county animal control. They didn't want it for testing because they haven't had any rabies positive coons for years?!?. They told me to just bury it.
Same thing for Lyme Disease. the veterinarians said we had LD for several years but the CDC said no. MDs didn't test humans for it because it supposedly wasn't here, nobody tested=no positives=no LD.
I'm the only one that goes out there and I'm careful around the bats and the barn.

 

[H&Hhunter]

And that ladies and gentlemen is why you should vaccinate your cats and dogs.

 

[J-Bar]

all known positives in our county for years have been bats but I don't think they test much of anything else. (If they don't test any, there won't be any positives!)
a few years ago I cam back to the house for lunch at 12 noon and found a raccoon staggering around in circles in the driveway. I drove the tractor over near it and it attacked the front tire. I gave it a fatal dose of 6000 pound tractor while being careful not to destroy the head and called county animal control. They didn't want it for testing because they haven't had any rabies positive coons for years?!?. They told me to just bury it.
Same thing for Lyme Disease. the veterinarians said we had LD for several years but the CDC said no. MDs didn't test humans for it because it supposedly wasn't here, nobody tested=no positives=no LD.
I'm the only one that goes out there and I'm careful around the bats and the barn.

LOL!

Reminds me of the time I was part of the USDA task force assigned to eradicate Newcastle Disease from poultry flocks in California in 2003. One of the other veterinarians working on the task force said, "We ain't never gonna get rid of this disease if we keep testing for it!"