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Just remember to remain wary of the cute ones. > Raccoons are a rabies reservoir in the eastern United States, extending from Canada to Florida and as far west
by GeekyBear 11mo ago
Just remember to remain wary of the cute ones.
> Raccoons are a rabies reservoir in the eastern United States, extending from Canada to Florida and as far west as the Appalachian Mountain range. Within these areas, 10% of raccoons that expose people or pets have rabies, making them one of the highest rabies-risks in the United States.
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/php/protecting-public-health/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/php/protecting-public-health/inde...
- fracus 11mo ago> 10% of raccoons that expose people or pets have rabies I don't understand the language of this quote. What does it mean for an animal to expose people?
- quadyeast 11mo agoyou would think that 100% of racoons that expose people to rabies have rabies.
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- kotaKat 11mo agoAn “exposure” in this instance to rabies would be physical contact - a bite, scratch, or from its saliva on an open wound for instance.
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- MathMonkeyMan 11mo agoIt's an odd framing. Out of R_t total raccoons, R_e bite or scratch (potentially "expose") humans. R_e / 10 of those were carrying rabies. So it could be that raccoons almost never bite/scratch humans, such that the behavioral effects of rabies are a significant motivator. It also could be that raccoons bite/scratch humans all of the time, and a ton of those raccoons have rabies. The latter is scary, but the former is likely the truth. I wonder if increased interactions between humans and raccoons will lead to a reduction in that 10% figure (more reasons to bite humans).
- cma 11mo agoIt's that it's not 10% of racoons have rabies, but 10% of the ones that expose people to a bite scratch etc. The reason the numbers aren't the same, significantly less than 10% of them have rabies, is mainly that rabies itself can make them more hostile etc., on top of if bitten by a racoon that is more symptomatic seeming you are much more likely to get it checked out.
- saghm 11mo agoI think the idea is that a raccoon you encounter is conditionwlly more likely to have rabies just based on the fact that you've encountered it. My understanding is that rabid racoons are less nocturnal and far less likely to feel the need to run or hide from humans. It's possible they botched the grammar here a little, but my interpretation is saying that if you look at the group of raccoons that allow themselves to be exposed itself to a human or pet (rather than avoiding us, which is not that hard for them to do it they want), around 10% of them have rabies.
- davidw 11mo agoIs there something that makes raccoons different than say cats in terms of rabies?
- shawn_w 11mo agoCats get vaccinated against rabies. I doubt there's one for racoons.
- aydyn 11mo agoUh, the rabies vaccine is the same regardless of species.
- shawn_w 11mo agoGlancing at Wikipedia, there seem to be a wide variety of different rabies vaccines, but, yeah, ones used on animals largely seem to be multi species. And there are programs to distribute bait laced with oral vaccines to target, among other animals, racoons. So I guess they are vaccinated, at least in some areas. TIL.
- taneq 11mo agoHuh, I'd never thought about it like that but yeah, the vaccine should depend on the targeted illness, not the recipient.
- tzs 11mo agoRaccoons actually do get vaccinated against rabies. There are large scale programs operated by the US government and state governments that regularly distribute vaccine laden baits from Maine to Alabama, to keep rabies from spreading to raccoon populations west of the Appalachians. If a breach occurs they also will trap raccoons and vaccinate them by injection in the area of the breach.
- dhosek 11mo agoAt first I read that as vaccine laden bats and for a moment, the world was just a little more delightful.