Wild warning: Rabies still plagues Maine, expert says

AUGUSTA – That ball of fur waddling toward you in your backyard may look cuddly and friendly, but that raccoon also could be a carrier of rabies.

Every year, a handful of Maine residents and visitors fail to heed repeated warnings not to approach wild animals or animals unfamiliar to them. Interacting with a stray animal, they end up being bitten or scratched and find themselves undergoing expensive treatment for rabies, according to Dr. Kathleen Gensheimer, state epidemiologist.

“People still end up behaving in inappropriate ways” despite the public awareness campaigns waged each year, Gensheimer said Friday. In one case, parents allowed a young child to take a wild raccoon to school for show and tell, she said.

With three months left in the year, the state has clinically confirmed 62 cases of rabies in animals that have had contact with a human or domestic animal.

Skunks and raccoons still top the list of carriers. The confirmed cases to date included 28 raccoons, 22 skunks, a woodchuck, four foxes, two cats and five bats.

In 2006, 127 cases were recorded from January through December. Those animals included 59 raccoons, 43 skunks, 15 bats, and a cow that was bitten as it grazed in a pasture.

Rabies, which attacks the central nervous system, is caused by a virus that lives in the saliva, brain and spinal cord tissue and is spread when an infected animal bites or scratches, according to the Maine Department of Health and Welfare. The virus also can be spread if saliva or nerve tissue touches broken skin or a mucous membrane in the mouth, nose or eyes, and by animals eating the carcass of infected animals. As the disease damages the brain, an animal’s behavior changes, and it begins to stagger or show signs of aggression.

“Do your best to avoid wildlife,” Gensheimer said. Wild animals do not want interaction with humans unless they are sick. In addition, she said, all pets should be vaccinated against rabies.

Gensheimer said her office can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 287-6582, for recommendations regarding rabies.