silly question -- rabies in domestic animals(non dogs/cats)?

[jellyfishing]

what's the risk of getting rabies from sheep/cattle/horse/etc bites?
i assume its higher for free-roaming animals than say, stabled horses..?but what's the like...approx stats for these??

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[Bill59]

In the US?

Rabies Surveillance US 2007

 

[No Imagination]

wow, much higher then I would have guessed (across the bored)

 

[critterfixer]

Well, we currently have somewhere between 10-15 people at UTK getting post-exposure shots because we had a horse come in that quickly deteriorated--but not until after several people had put their hands in its mouth--and the horse tested positive for rabies after euthanasia. The horse apparently did not show any signs of a bite wound, and was not initially presented as a neuro case, let alone a suspected rabies case. I believe it was the skunk variant, fwiw.

 

[jellyfishing]

just wondering.. should i get worried about a normal horse bite(which i'm not even sure had punctured the skin?but it looks like there's "bleeding" underneath the skin?)

 

[david594]

Talk to your doctor about your exposure and associated risks.

On a side not I googled it and found this article:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/m...ubhlth-strateg-communic-factsheets-rabies.htm

"While animal rabies has never been reported in Australia or New Zealand there is the potential for the virus to be introduced into Australia from neighbouring countries through the illegal importation of unvaccinated animals."

Is it even a concern in australia?

 

[jellyfishing]

hey! thanks for the repliess
i called up the stables and apparently the horses are vaccinated..so no worries there i guess!!but the doc advised a tetanus booster cos my last one is 9 yrs old..so..might be getting that anyway
btw..i wasn't bitten in aus..(but not the states either) hehe

 

[crewgal]

rabies vaccines in domestic animals aren't always effective. first vaccine can have as low as only 60% success rate in producing a positive titer. getting the preexposure vaccination really isn't that bad and you might want to consider it.

 

[RazorDoc2010]

"While animal rabies has never been reported in Australia or New Zealand there is the potential for the virus to be introduced into Australia from neighbouring countries through the illegal importation of unvaccinated animals."

Is it even a concern in australia?

I think I remember our public health teacher showing us a graph of countries with rabies and he made the comment that it's not currently an issue in AUS. For anyone in AUS, is Rabies still a "core" vaccine there?

 

[jellyfishing]

I think I remember our public health teacher showing us a graph of countries with rabies and he made the comment that it's not currently an issue in AUS. For anyone in AUS, is Rabies still a "core" vaccine there?

for vet students i don't think we require rabies vaccine (although some ppl have it i guess) q-fever is required in aus though.. all first years have to get the q-fever vaccine before working with animals (in particularly cattle, abbatoir)

i think rabies is almost non-existent in australia, thanks to reaaaaaally stringent regulations on importing animal/plant products

 

[RazorDoc2010]

for vet students i don't think we require rabies vaccine (although some ppl have it i guess) q-fever is required in aus though.. all first years have to get the q-fever vaccine before working with animals (in particularly cattle, abbatoir)

i think rabies is almost non-existent in australia, thanks to reaaaaaally stringent regulations on importing animal/plant products

Cool, I didn't know that about the Q-fever vacc. Thanks for the info!

 

[CURLYVET]

Critterfixer wrote: The horse apparently did not show any signs of a bite wound, and was not initially presented as a neuro case, let alone a suspected rabies case.

Hi, for everybody i,m a veterinarian graduated in 2005 in Lithuania (EUROPE) (country borders with Poland in south-west, with Belorusia in south-east an east and with Latvia in north). So I had a dog with rabies and dog had only signs of vomiting and digging the soil for 3 days. During examination dog died in the clinic. The lab improved rabies. So even in dogs exists atypical signs of rabies.

Well, we currently have somewhere between 10-15 people at UTK getting post-exposure shots because we had a horse come in that quickly deteriorated--but not until after several people had put their hands in its mouth--and the horse tested positive for rabies after euthanasia. The horse apparently did not show any signs of a bite wound, and was not initially presented as a neuro case, let alone a suspected rabies case. I believe it was the skunk variant, fwiw.

 

[svendenhowser]

Although we don't have the same type of rabies thats in the US (and other countries), we do have Batlyssa Virus, which is essentially an aussie version of rabies (the traditional rabies vaccination is protective against it). Our fruit bats/flying foxes carry it. So everyone who works with bats has to have rabies vaccinations regularly (can't remember how frequent.. I think it goes on blood levels).

It is very rare though and theres only been a couple of cases of transmission between bats and people that I can recall..

I think I remember our public health teacher showing us a graph of countries with rabies and he made the comment that it's not currently an issue in AUS. For anyone in AUS, is Rabies still a "core" vaccine there?

No rabies isn't in our core vaccines, only q-fever for vets/vet students

 

[RazorDoc2010]

Although we don't have the same type of rabies thats in the US (and other countries), we do have Batlyssa Virus, which is essentially an aussie version of rabies (the traditional rabies vaccination is protective against it). Our fruit bats/flying foxes carry it. So everyone who works with bats has to have rabies vaccinations regularly (can't remember how frequent.. I think it goes on blood levels).

It is very rare though and theres only been a couple of cases of transmission between bats and people that I can recall..



No rabies isn't in our core vaccines, only q-fever for vets/vet students

Ahh, very interesting. Thanks for the info! Is Batlyssa virus as virulent as rabies?

 

[svendenhowser]

Well it's pretty rare to get it, as they are fruit bats they don't hurt or attack humans or other mammals and for transmission to occur you need to be bitten or scratched as the virus is secreted in the saliva. Thats why only people who are in close contact with the bats (wildlife workers/carers, vets in routine contact, etc) are recommended to get the rabies vaccine.

However the 2 people who have been confirmed to have contracted bat lyssavirus from bats have both died I haven't read anywhere of anyone contracting it and not dying, nor have I heard of mammals other than humans contracting it. So I guess you could say it's not as dangerous as the rabies in the US just because it's harder to contract, but still deadly..