<story><title>CDC reports increase in human rabies cases linked to bats in the U.S.</title><url>https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0106-human-rabies.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tzs</author><text>Rabies is pretty damn scary--but please learn what animals carry rabies where you live.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen people freak out because they&amp;#x27;ve seen a raccoon in the daytime and think (1) raccoons are nocturnal so this one is acting strange, and (2) raccoons are rabies carriers, and so it is probably acting strange because it is rabid.&lt;p&gt;In fact in this part of the country (western Washington) from 1988-2020 rabies has not been found in any wild terrestrial mammal. The only mammals found to have rabies over that time have been 530 bats, 2 cats, 1 horse, and 1 llama.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a nifty map here [1] showing what animal populations have rabies in which states.&lt;p&gt;So what does it mean when you see a raccoon in the daytime in western Washington? It almost always means they aren&amp;#x27;t finding enough food at night so have to put in overtime foraging.&lt;p&gt;This is quite common around breeding time. The pregnant females need more food than normal and often will have to go out during the day to get it.&lt;p&gt;BTW, I believe it is not known &lt;i&gt;why&lt;/i&gt; rabies is not found in wild terrestrial mammals here.&lt;p&gt;For squirrels there are at least three theories. (1) Squirrels are safely asleep in their nests when bats are out, so don&amp;#x27;t get bitten by bats and if they get bitten by something else that something else is probably big enough that the encounter is fatal for the squirrel, (2) maybe squirrels have strong natural immunity so don&amp;#x27;t get it even if they do get bitten, or (3) maybe squirrels are particularly vulnerable to it so if they get bitten by a bat they quickly die before they can spread it and since we don&amp;#x27;t do autopsies on random dead squirrels we come across we never find out about the briefly rabid squirrels.&lt;p&gt;For raccoons, I don&amp;#x27;t think it is clear why they aren&amp;#x27;t picking it up from bats here.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cdc.gov&amp;#x2F;rabies&amp;#x2F;location&amp;#x2F;usa&amp;#x2F;surveillance&amp;#x2F;wild_animals.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cdc.gov&amp;#x2F;rabies&amp;#x2F;location&amp;#x2F;usa&amp;#x2F;surveillance&amp;#x2F;wild_an...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>CDC reports increase in human rabies cases linked to bats in the U.S.</title><url>https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0106-human-rabies.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>WaitWaitWha</author><text>I got bitten by a dog when I was a 13 years old, but the owner refused to provide details about the dog.&lt;p&gt;I had post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies.  Five sets of shots into my torso.&lt;p&gt;This was less than pleasant.</text></comment>