State: Animals weren’t rabid

Local News

July 7, 2011

By John J. Hopkins The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Thu Jul 07, 2011, 10:48 PM EDT

— — A week after issuing a warning about potentially rabid animals on Tonawanda Island, the Niagara County Health Department reported Thursday evening that the animals did not test positive for the disease.

The New York state Department of Health’s rabies laboratory confirmed that rabies was not present in two woodchucks tested.

Still, all Niagara County residents are encouraged to take precautions against rabies exposure from wild and stray animals and to assure that their pets are vaccinated against the potential lethal disease.

Last Friday, the Niagara County Department of Health issued a warning about potentially rabid animals on the island.

“Over the past week, the Niagara County Department of Health received reports of several groundhogs and a skunk observed acting unusual on Tonawanda Island,” the department reported in a press release. “We later learned all of these animals had died and suspect rabies as the cause of these deaths.”

Anthony Zaccarella, a public health sanitarian with the county health department, told the Tonawanda News that two woodchucks were sent to the state lab.

“These animals from Tonawanda Island were picked up last Friday and shipped off immediately,” Zaccarella said. “They didn’t get tested until Tuesday morning.”

Those tests showed the woodchucks, or groundhogs, did not have rabies.

The skunk was never captured, he added.

To date, there have been no confirmed rabies cases on Tonawanda Island, he said.

Infected animals spread rabies virus through their saliva. People and unvaccinated animals can be infected from a rabid animal from a bite or if the saliva gets into the eyes, nose, mouth or a break in the skin. However, rabies can be prevented by vaccinating pet dogs, cats and ferrets and by avoiding contact with all wild and stray animals.

Rabies is endemic in bats and raccoons in New York state. Other wild animals, especially skunks and gray and red foxes, are more likely than family pets to be infected with rabies because of exposure to raccoons and the widespread vaccination of pet cats, dogs and ferrets.

If residents encounter unusually aggressive animals or see one acting unusually, they are urged to call North Tonawanda police at 692-4111. Any animal bite needs to be reported to the county health department at 439-7444 for investigation.

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