Check out how a virus can mutate. Flagstaff strain of common rabies has changed in a startling way. It is spreading among foxes and skunks by means of socializing between animals that aren't showing signs of rabies. So, the fox and skunk version of a kiss! Just by being in close proximity to each other, a non-symptomatic animal can give rabies to another animal. Without a bite.
Yikes!!!
Thought I was crazy for R140 to be spread socially, huh?!
~K.J.
Arizona Daily Sun
Third rabies infection reported by Flagstaff Police
SCOTT BUFFON Sun Staff Reporter
Jan 13, 2019
After two foxes tested positive for rabies at the end of December, the Flagstaff Police Department reported another bite in the Flagstaff area with multiple other species testing positive in the city of Flagstaff area.
There have now been three reported human infections in the county in the past month, according to Cory Runge, spokesperson at the Flagstaff Police Department.
“If a person is infected and they don’t immediately get treatment, it can be fatal,” Runge said. “That’s why we’re so concerned about it. We’re trying to preserve life.”
Coconino County has seen a large spike in reports of rabies in wild animal populations, according to public data from the Arizona Department of Health Services. The state's health department data shows that the amount of confirmed rabies cases in animals has jumped from just three animals confirmed in 2017 to 32 cases in 2018.
The number of animals that tested positive for rabies in December has still not been reported by the state's health department.
The Flagstaff police have reported seeing javelinas, coyotes, foxes and a skunk test positive for rabies. The city's animal control recently caught another species suspected of being infected, Runge said.
“We’re reaching out to partnering agencies for what we can do to slow the spread of this disease,” Runge said.
In late December, the Coconino County Public Health and Safety District reported that two foxes had attacked several people in both the areas of the Continental Country Club and Mars Hills. All people attacked were taken in for treatment, according to the attending agencies.
Foxes are a common host for the virus, according to data from the state's health department. The state department also listed data showing that foxes have also been the highest contributors to confirmed rabies accounts this year.
There have been 52 foxes confirmed with rabies throughout the state, close to half of which came from Coconino County. Last year, there were only 34 confirmed cases and 2 in Coconino County, according to data from the state's health department.
Bites are just one way that the disease spreads, Runge explained.
"If prey animals are infected, it can spread to the predator animals who prey on that species," Runge said.
Runge added that they are unsure about why the disease is spreading so significantly. He added that the police department wants to ensure that people and their pets are safe.
Runge also said that animals that might be staggering when walking should be considered suspicious.
“If they’re out during the day, foxes, skunks, typical nighttime animals, that you’re not used to seeing during the day, we’d like to know about it,” Runge said. “If it’s in city limits, or if it’s in the county, call animal control and they can go investigate it.”
The Latest Animal Virus
on May 9, 2009
The virus in this case is rabies, the infamous disease that is perhaps less feared today but still around. A new strain of rabies found in northern Arizona has a mutation that allows it to be contagious among skunks and foxes, meaning it’s “[e]volving faster than any other new rabies virus on record,” National Geographic News reports.
A NEW STRAIN OF RABIES FOUND IN NORTHERN ARIZONA HAS A MUTATION THAT ALLOWS IT TO BE CONTAGIOUS AMONG SKUNKS AND FOXES.
The difference is that unlike previous forms of the rabies virus, the mutated variant may be transmissible by simple socializing among animals. Previously, the virus could only be passed through bites or scratches. Bats have long been the target of most concern, since they can live in such places as attics and often carry the rabies virus.
Obviously, that’s a considerable problem, since the old variant of the virus quickly killed the host, meaning it could only be passed on in violent attacks. Northern Arizona officials have seen rabies in skunks for eight years in a row, while the Flagstaff, Arizona, area has seen 14 rabid foxes so far this year. The situation presents a danger because the infected animals are turning up so close to people, with one (a bobcat) even chasing pool players at a bar in Cottonwood, Arizona.
“We’re watching evolution in action on the ground,” claims David Bergman of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In response to the situation, Flagstaff has instituted a 90-day pet quarantine requiring all dogs to remain on leashes and all cats to stay indoors. Meanwhile, the state is increasing efforts to vaccinate wildlife (efforts previously deemed successful). Another concern is that foxes travel in a much wider area than skunks and other smaller wildlife, increasing the speed at which a new form of rabies could spread.
Once again, however, there is no evidence that the rabies virus is “evolving” in the same way that could turn a fish into a philosopher, as evolutionists often mean by “evolution.” Rather, mutations in the virus are merely rearranging or reducing its genetic information. Also, note that very little research—and nothing peer-reviewed—has been done on this possible new rabies virus.
As for the rest of us, remaining safe from rabies takes mostly common sense, such as keeping distance from wildlife and ensuring pets do, too. If you or someone you know is bitten or scratched by a wild animal, wash the wound with soap and water immediately and seek medical attention. If caught soon after infection, rabies can be treated, but if left untreated, rabies is almost always fatal.
Source
National Geographic News: “New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found—and Spreading”
A Blogger on Wordpress, Mama Bear, broke it down nicely:
New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found — And Spreading
Mama Bear
7 years ago
I just read two news articles reported today and I went searching to learn how rabies was spread because I always thought it was spread through bites, it appears the virus is changing and becoming more dangerous. Wow! Click here to read the entire article or an excerpt below. When a disease is able to spread between animals and humans it is called a Zoonotic Disease, click here to learn more.
“Deadly Contact: How Animals and Humans Exchange Diseases” in National Geographic Magazine
Evolving faster than any other new rabies virus on record, a northern-Arizona rabies strain has mutated to become contagious among skunks and now foxes, experts believe.
The strain looks to be spreading fast, commanding attention from disease researchers across the United States.
It’s not so unusual for rabid animals to attack people on hiking trails and in driveways, or even in a bar—as happened March 27, when an addled bobcat chased pool players around the billiards table at the Chaparral in Cottonwood.
Nor is it odd that rabid skunks and foxes are testing positive for a contagious rabies strain commonly associated with big brown bats.
What is unusual is that the strain appears to have mutated so that foxes and skunks are now able to pass the virus on to their kin—not just through biting and scratching but through simple socializing, as humans might spread a flu.
Usually the secondary species—in this case, a skunk or fox bitten by a bat—is a dead-end host. The infected animal may become disoriented and even die but is usually unable to spread the virus, except through violent attacks.
Skunks have already been proven to be passively transmitting the strain to each other, as documented in a 2006 study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Genetic studies suggest foxes are also spreading the new strain to each other, though the results have not yet been peer reviewed.
Unprecedented Evolution
When a skunk in Flagstaff, Arizona, died of rabies in 2001, wildlife specialists thought it was a “freak accident”—due to a one-off, run-of-the-mill bat bite—said Barbara Worgess, director of the Coconino County Health Department.
Lab tests later showed that the virus had adapted to the skunk physiology and become contagious within the species.
“It shouldn’t have been able to pass from skunk to skunk,” Worgess said.
Rabies has continued to crop up in skunks for eight years now, despite periodic vaccination campaigns. And so far this year, county officials have documented 14 rabid foxes in the Flagstaff area.
Now laboratory studies at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta appear to confirm that the fox and skunk rabies viruses are mutated forms of the bat strain.
“We can see degrees of relatedness and patterns in their genetic codes,” said Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program for the CDC.
This sort of rapid evolution is exactly what worries public health officials when it comes to all manner of viruses. Virologists haven’t seen such fast adaptation to a new species in rabies before.
“That’s why Flagstaff is such an interesting story worldwide,” said David Bergman, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s state director for Arizona.
“We’re watching evolution in action on the ground.”
Could Rabies Become Contagious in Humans?
The Arizona rabies situation is risky, because the infected species live so close to people.
Flagstaff’s sprawl in recent decades has created a perfect opportunity for rabies to mutate into species-hopping forms, the CDC’s Rupprecht said.
New-home construction, often in wooded areas, has actually increased habitat and food sources for bats, skunks, and foxes. Skunks live under houses, for example, and as diggers, make themselves at home on golf courses. Bats, meanwhile, are adept at living in attics and under loose shingles.
As more rabies-susceptible animals congregate in the region, more infections can take place. And each infection is an opportunity for the virus to mutate into a more virulent form—literally upping the odds of a new strain developing.
“That’s a pattern that we see all over the United States,” Rupprecht said. Similar suburban development in the eastern U.S. in the late 1970s, he noted, led to the spread of raccoon rabies from the Canadian border to the Deep South.
The risk of such a virulent strain jumping to people “should be a major concern,” said Hinh Ly, a molecular virologist at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who is not involved in studies of the Arizona outbreak.
But no one is expecting the rabies strain to become a contagious, swine flu-like epidemic among humans.
Flu viruses, for one thing, tend to infect people fast, so “vaccination after exposure would be too late to prevent infection,” said Elisabeth Lawaczeck, the Arizona Department of Health Services’ public health veterinarian.
Rabies takes its time before going from incubation to infection, so post-exposure rabies vaccinations tend to be effective at stopping the virus. If untreated, though, rabies, which attacks the central nervous system, is often fatal in humans.
What Next?
Rabies cases among animals are expected to increase as the spring and summer mating seasons bring potential pairs and rivals together. (Related: “Bat Rabies Threat Rises With Summer Temperatures.”)
Already, Flagstaff has declared a 90-day pet quarantine—all dogs on leashes and all cats indoors—which began in April.
A wildlife vaccination plan could stem the virus’s spread. Local and state officials enacted vaccination programs in northern Arizona in 2001 and 2005 but discontinued each effort after two years without rabies reports—the World Health Organization’s standard for declaring an area rabies-free.
Now state vaccination funds have been reallocated, the USDA’s Bergman said, and emergency funds are increasingly rare due to the recession.
Adding to the worries, Lawaczeck, the Arizona veterinary official, said she and other public heath officials were “very unsettled” when the first rabid fox reports came in from Flagstaff this year—and not just because of the evolutionary implications for rabies.
“This means a much wider spread of rabies,” she said, “because [foxes] travel so much farther.”
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