>>>>>"In addition, people cannot get rabies from having contact with bat guano (feces), blood, or urine, or from touching a bat on its fur (even though bats should never be handled!). "
That's right. Since our farm has been a dot on some CDC map, we had to learn more about rabies than I ever wanted to know last year when Svertla was quarantined. Rabies is only transmitted through saliva, or through...how did they describe it? Basically only through saliva or spinal/brain fluid. It is not transmitted through blood, urine, or feces. Additionally, rabies dies within seconds of cooling from body temperatures, so even if an animal were in the active, drooling phase of shedding the virus, the saliva has to be ALMOST a direct transfer, as with a bite. About the only restriction we had for Svertla (for seven months) was that we were told not to put an unvaccinated horse in an area with her where they could share a water source. All of ours were vaccinated, so we weren't limited at all as to whom she could stay with. Rabies is a horrible, horrible disease, but actually, handling a rabies quarantine is much easier than handling something more "mundane" like strangles - it's just that the implications of rabies are so severe if you (or an animal) does get it. Karen Thomas, NC
