Rabies is a preventable viral disease of mammals most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. The rabies virus attacks the central nervous system, causing encephalitis, and is always fatal once symptoms appear.  Rabies can be prevented in persons who have come into contact or been bitten by wild animals through prompt administration of anti-rabies vaccine and rabies immune globulin. Hundreds of rabies post exposure prophylactic treatments are initiated annually in Arizona to prevent rabies from developing after confirmed or suspect exposures.  All bite or contact exposures to bats or other wild animals should be reported immediately to local animal control or health officials. Bites from domestic mammals (except for rodents and rabbits), should also be reported to local animal control.  Reports of rabies or suspect rabies infection in livestock, and the quarantine of livestock that bite humans, are handled by the Arizona State Veterinarian's office in Phoenix: (602) 542-4293. 

The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes.  Domestic animals account for less than 10% of the reported rabies cases, with cats, cattle, and dogs most often reported rabid. 

In Arizona, the principal rabies hosts are bats, skunks, and foxes. These animals carry their own distinct rabies virus variants or "strains”. When rabies activity within these animal groups increases, rabies can "spillover” into other mammal species, such as bobcats, coyotes, javelina, cats, dogs, horses, cows, etc. Every year, approximately 30 people are exposed to rabid animals in Arizona. People who have exposures must receive vaccine and anti-rabies serum treatment to prevent infection. In Arizona, bats present the most common source of rabies exposures to humans because rabid bats often fall to the ground where they are easily accessible to people and pets. Bats are generally not aggressive. Exposure to rabid bats usually occurs when people pick up or handle a sick or dead bat. Other rabies exposures occur when people try to approach or feed wild animals, or in some cases, are attacked by rabid animals such as foxes, bobcats, and skunks. Most rabies exposures can be avoided by simply leaving bats and other wild animals alone. The last documented human rabies death in Arizona was in 1981.

In the United States, human fatalities associated with rabies occur in people who fail to seek medical assistance, usually because they were unaware of their exposure or failed to report their experience to health officials. This is especially true with exposures to bats, as bat bites can be difficult to detect.  Since 1980 more than half of the human cases of rabies in the U.S. have been associated with bat-associated rabies virus.
                                                
In 2009, the Arizona State Health Laboratory confirmed the highest number of rabies cases in animals on record for any year in Arizona. 280 animals have tested positive for rabies including 69 bats, 144 skunks, 51 foxes, 8 bobcats, 2 coyotes, 3 horses, 1 ringtail, 1 cow, and 1 cat.

For further information about animal rabies cases in Arizona, click here.  For frequently asked questions about rabies, click here.