By Jeff Labine

Rabid animals rare, but concern still real: health region

May 24, 2017 | 12:00 PM

As the weather improves and more people venture outdoors, animal encounters increase. The health region reminds some of these animals carry potentially deadly diseases.

Rabies can be carried by any mammal with the most common carriers being cats, dogs, bats, skunks and foxes. On average, the health region follows up on 150 reports per year. Last year, there was only one animal tested positive for rabies in the region, which was a bat. The province confirmed 18 cases in the first half of 2016. From Jan. 1 to July 13, Saskatchewan documented four cases involving domestic animals, including a cow, a cat, a lamb and a goat, and 14 cases of wild animals including eight skunks and six bats.

Danielle Sande, immunization co-ordinator with the Prince Albert Parkland Region Health Region, said bat bites are very tiny so someone might not know they are bitten. If the bat is killed or escapes, the health region will automatically start the treatment for rabies.

Sande said rabies can be passed on to a human from a warm-blooded animal if they are scratched or bitten. While usually very rare, rabies is 100 per cent fatal in humans.

“Luckily we haven’t had rabies cases in humans in quite a long time,” she said. “What we do when we get a report that somebody has been bitten or scratched by an animal, we try to follow the animal. With most animals, if they are alive and well within a 10 day period after the incident, then we can assume that animal did not have rabies.”

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She explained if the animals dies within that period – whether by the disease or other means –, the health region will test the brain for rabies. If it looks like the person who was bit or scratched could develop rabies, then that person will receive an immunization series to prevent the disease from developing.

The vaccine is expensive and requires multiple shots. Sande said the best method is to monitor the animal first to see if there’s any signs of rabies.

“If we have an animal to watch, that’s really what we want to do,” she added.

The most common animals reported to the health region are cats, bats and dogs despite them not being the biggest carries of the disease.

But people shouldn’t rule out skunks, bats or other wildlife.

“Skunks are a huge carrier of rabies but most people aren’t bite by skunks,” she said. “But sometimes [people] are handling skunks or skunks get into their yards and attack their domestic animals like their dogs, which then can make an animal rabid.”

Her best advice for people is simply stay away from any strange animals.

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter