Not all wild Arizona animals can carry the rabies virus, only mammals can get rabies and infect other animals. Birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians cannot get rabies and also they cannot pass rabies on. Most cases of rabies in the United States occur in the wild animal populations with most infections occurring in skunks, next most infected our raccoons followed by bats, then coyotes and last of all fox's. Currently cats have become the most common domestic animal to be infected with the rabies virus, probably because wild animals that are infected by very easy for cats to catch.



The potential is there for any and all Mesa mammals, including humans, to catch rabies but humans really do. For some unknown reason most people in the United States believe that raccoons are the most likely to pass rabies on to either of them or their pets but this is completely false, sure enough the occasional raccoon will have rabies and so will the occasional skunk or bat but the reality of the situation is that you're more likely to get rabies in your own dog or cat, a lot more likely.

The only time an Arizona animal with rabies is actually contagious is in the final stages of the disease, the animal will most likely be foaming at the mouth, stumbling around all over the place and delirious, if you see an animal that even resembles this keep clear of it and call your local animal control. The moment you mentioned the word rabies on the phone they will be on the way to sort out the animal.

Another animal that gets a lot of bad press about being rabid is Mesa opossum's but they are actually amazingly resistant to the rabies virus, they seem to get the bad press because they like to hiss, drool and sway their bodies when they are threatened, so people think they are rabid when all they are actually doing is there species bluff routine. The routine they do is designed to frighten you away and in most people because they see the routine and think the animal is rabid they do go the opposite direction and the animal wins.

Over the last 10 years only 28 people have died from the rabies virus in the United States, that is less than three fatalities per annum. Surprisingly most of the people who caught the rabies virus and died from it in the United States got it by handling a bat without gloves, whereas the most feared animal, raccoons, were only responsible for one death out of those 28.

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