A bobcat tests positive for rabies after being thwarted by authorities for biting three people in the Upper Valley. They don’t typically contract positive for rabies because of their solitary nature, but the event is so far not indicative of any rabies outbreak in Vermont bobcats.
Bobcat Tests Positive For Rabies
Vermont authorities report of three individuals who were bitten by a bobcat in Hartford. Specifically, two women were attacked by a bobcat in Hartford, and wide news coverage of it got the attention of a man who was also bitten by a bobcat in the same area the day before after he took a photo of it and it went into his car.
Vermont State Game Wardens shot the creature in a parking lot, and it has tested positive for rabies. The three people attacked by the bobcat are already receiving post-exposure medical treatment against rabies.
“We all appreciate the rapid coverage of this story by the media which may very well have prevented the man from coming down with rabies, which is almost always fatal,” said Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter.
Rabies In Vermont
According to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, bobcats very rarely contract rabies because of their solitary nature and because they naturally exist in low densities across the landscape. In fact, only five of the 70 bobcats tested for rabies in the state have tested positive, the one recently killed being the first rabies-positive bobcat in the state for 2018.
Mostly, rabies cases in the state come from bats, foxes, skunks, and raccoons.
Rabies
Rabies is a preventable disease that is mostly spread through the bite of a rabies-positive animal. It affects the central nervous system and eventually leads to disease in the brain and, ultimately, death.
Initial symptoms may come in the form of general weakness, discomfort, fever, and headache, but death occurs typically within days of the onset of more specific symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, excitation, hallucination, partial paralysis, hypersalivation, and fear or water.
