What About Rabies?

All mammals can contract, carry and transmit rabies. Bats account for just a third of the 5,000 rabid animals reported each year, in the United States.  According to the CDC, 6% of the bats submitted for testing have rabies.3  In the general population, less than ½ of 1% of all bats contract the rabies virus. 4

Bats are responsible for roughly 7 in 10 rabies deaths among people who are infected with the rabies virus in the United States. 5 This sounds frightening until you put it into context. According to The Humane Society of the United States, there is an average of one or two deaths a year from the rabies virus. 6

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For you to contract rabies you must be bitten or get saliva or nervous tissues into an open wound or into the mucous membranes of your eyes, nose or mouth. People cannot get rabies from having contact with bat guano, blood, or urine, or from touching a bat on its fur. The rabies virus has never been isolated from bat blood, urine or feces and there is no evidence of airborne transmission in buildings or outside. 7

 

Precautions should be taken to protect yourself, your family and your pets. The best ways to guard against rabies: 

• Don't approach or handle wild animals, especially sick wild animals.

• Vaccinate your pets.

• Get prompt post-exposure treatment when advised to do so by a doctor or health department. 8