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Mike O'Brien of the Kentville office, Wildlife division, N.S. Dept. of Natural Resources, has confirmed that the rabies in this fox was of the strain known in bats. Cheers from Jim in Wolfville -------------- Chronicle Herald, Wed., Dec. 19, 2007 Rabies found in Mulgrave fox By JEFFREY SIMPSON -- Staff Reporter A veterinarianıs examination of a [red] fox killed in Mulgrave last week has turned up a rare case of rabies. Lucas Wide, a spokesman with Nova Scotia Health Promotion and Protection, said three members of the same family who handled the dead animal are being treated for the virus as a precaution, but the risk of them being infected is minimal. Mr. Wide said a member of the family went outside on Dec. 11 and saw his dog tangling with the fox. "The fox turned and went at him and he had a gun and he shot the fox," Mr. Wide said in an interview Tuesday. "He then collected the fox up and took it to their local animal hospital." The virus, which affects the nervous system of mammals, is passed in the saliva of an infected animal, typically entering the body through a bite. Rabies has different strains but only the type pertaining to bats has been detected in the province. "What probably happened was that this fox was bitten by a bat and contracted the rabies," Mr. Wide said. "As a precaution the family elected to have their dog put down." None of the family members had suffered a bite. Dr. Richard Gould, the medical officer of health for the South Shore, Southwest and Valley district health authorities, said people rarely get rabies, and if they are bitten by an infected animal, a series of shots is generally effective as a treatment if itıs received before symptoms show. "You canıt actually wait until symptoms occur to do anything because once symptoms occur itıs pretty much universally fatal. Thereıs not really any treatment," he said. "Usually takes . . . several weeks to months for rabies to develop in a person that has been exposed." People who have come into contact with a bat are generally advised to seek treatment as a precaution because bites from the animals can be difficult to detect, Dr. Gould said. "We would expect that this would just be an isolated case," he said of the most recent instance. Over the past 25 years the virus has been found in only about nine animals in the province, most of which were bats, he said. But a cat in Fall River was put down in 2003 after it was found to have the virus, although not before biting four people. Animals with rabies might behave abnormally but a test is required to find out if theyıve been infected, Dr. Gould said. "They may appear much less aggressive or not easy to rouse, or they could be very aggressive," he said. "They could develop paralysis of a limb." Only a small percentage of bats in the province carry the virus and itıs even less prevalent with other animals, he said. "Itıs quite rare in Nova Scotia," he said. "It doesnıt happen very often." ( jsimpson@herald.ca)
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