Despite widespread believe that most rodents,
including squirrels, chipmunks, mice and
gerbils, do carry rabies, there has been a very
little proof that rats do spread rabies to
humans. Though, very few wild rats have been
found to carry rabies especially in countries
like the United States of America, but the
number are extremely small , and the development
of diagnostic methods have helped in identifying
potential rats that can carry the disease and
spread it to other animals and humans. Though
rats carry a number of parasitic diseases but
the main reason why rabies are very rear in rats
is because they rarely come in contact with
other rabid animals such as Raccoons, fox and
skunks.
The spread of rabies in a rat that becomes a
carrier can depend on few factors; the age, the
body weight, and the rabies dose and strain. The
higher the dose of rabies in a rat, the fast the
progression of the disease, however, the larger
the size of the rat, the slower the progression
of the disease. It is believed that he
incubation period for the development of wild
rabies in wild rat is between 14 and 18 days,
and most rats will eventually die of the disease
in few weeks. While raccoons and some larger
animals may have rabies incubation periods of
several weeks because of their larger body
sizes, rats seem to die quickly from rabies
before they spread the disease to humans.
The fact that most rats are not wild , make it
difficult to ascertain whether they carry rabies
or not, and many pet rat owners do think that
rats are not often bitten by rabid animals, and
if they are eventually bitten, they do survive
long enough before the rats can bite humans.
Skunks, bats, and dogs are considered to be the
most prominent carriers or vectors of rabies.
Sometimes rabbits and hares are also found to
carry the infection. The fact that rats don’t
come too close often with these key vectors
makes it rare for them to contact the virus.
Bites from rats may not be a source of concern ,
unless the rat is behaving in an unusual manner,
then one may have to get tested for rabies after
being bitten. Unless you live in a rat infested
area, you should not worry about getting rabies
infection from the animal as they rarely get to
close to humans, except when they are raised as
pets.
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