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Chippawa Blog

What is Rabies?

By September 3, 2025September 25th, 2025No Comments

Rabies is in the News Once Again

Rabies is an incredibly dangerous, life threatening, endemic, underestimated, and fascinating disease. Some countries have no rabies, but Canada is not so lucky.  The scope of this article is confined to the specific concerns that we might have in our region, so I won’t go into the world-wide history of the disease.  Even so, it makes for interesting reading if you have the time.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

The Bat Connection

We think of rabies concurrently with bats. Bats are an important part of our ecosystem and play an essential role in insect pest control, pollination, seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. But…rabies in bats is a concern in Ontario, as bats are a known reservoir for the disease.  Even so, while bat strain rabies is present across Ontario, the percentage of rabid bats is relatively low.

How Much Rabies is There in Our Area?

A look at the incidence of rabies shows any mammal can be infected, including people. This site https://www.ontario.ca/page/rabies-cases shows maps of Southern Ontario with locations of animals that have been found to be positive for Rabies. The Niagara Region has unfortunately been well represented over the years, with rabid bats, skunks, raccoons, and at least one cat and one dog. Other animals that have occasionally been infected with rabies are fox, beaver, black bear, elk, field mice, fisher, ground hog, hare, mink, muskrat, otter, rabbit, weasel, white-tailed deer, and wild boar. Coyotes, wolves and opossums are susceptible to rabies but are rarely infected in Ontario.

Since 1924, when records started in Canada, there have been 9 reported cases of human deaths from Rabies in Ontario, 28 in Canada. The last case, in 2024, was a child in the Brantford area.  Rabies is always fatal once symptoms start.

What Kind of Rabies is Happening Around Us?

There are 3 variants of rabies in Southern Ontario; bat, fox, and raccoon strains, but any strain can be carried by any mammal.  Since 2015 Ontario has battled a raccoon-variant outbreak, mostly around Hamilton and Niagara with over 523 cases detected since its onset. Fox variant rabies has not been detected since 2018 in Southern Ontario. The bat rabies variant has been found in 358 cases since 2015 and has been the most common in recent years.

Rabies coming into Ontario from outside the country should also be considered seriously, especially in the group of rescue pets being sponsored for adoption by Canadians. There have been confirmed cases of dogs imported into Canada developing rabies that would have been contracted in their country of origin. In 2021 an imported dog tested positive for rabies after showing symptoms soon after arrival.  The dog had been vaccinated abroad, but the vaccine was likely invalid or improperly administered. There have also been several incidents where dogs arrived in Canada with falsified vaccination records or questionable health status. Canada began tightening controls due to concerns about dogs from countries where canine rabies is still endemic (a disease that is always present in a particular region), particularly from parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Nowadays Rabies vaccination certificates must meet strict criteria as a consequence of this situation, and dogs from high-risk countries are no longer allowed entry, even for adoption or rescue, unless specific exceptions apply.

What are Rabies Symptoms?

All rabies variants can cause the two known forms of Rabies; the dumb form and the furious form. Some animals can show signs of both forms.

Animals with the dumb form of rabies may:

  • lose their fear of humans
  • become depressed and retreat to isolated places
  • become partially paralyzed (watch for abnormal facial expression, drooling, drooping head, sagging jaw, strange sounds, or paralysis in the hind limbs that spreads to the rest of the body)

Animals with the furious form of rabies may:

  • be extremely excited and aggressive
  • gnaw at and bite their own limbs
  • attack other objects or animals
  • be alternately agitated and depressed

How is Rabies Spread?

The virus is found in the saliva and nervous tissue of infected mammals. It can be spread by:

  • bites that break the skin
  • getting saliva from an infected animal in an open cut, sore, or other wound
  • getting saliva from an infected animal in the mouth, nose, or eyes
  • direct contact with infected brain or nervous system tissue. For example, through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, or mouth

Rabies can not be transmitted through contact with the blood, urine or feces of an infected animal.

What Responsibility and Action is Necessary with Bats and Bites?

Any encounter with a bat should be treated as a potential rabies exposure. Bats have small teeth, and bites can be hard to detect. In Niagara, any bat found indoors should be considered potentially rabid, even without visible signs of illness, and should be reported to the local health unit. When any animal is acting in an unusual way the incident should also be reported. Generally, whenever possible, the animal should not be allowed to escape, but no attempt to trap it should entail risking your life or health. Any animal bite should be reported to the local health unit as well. They will help you complete a risk assessment.

Niagara Public Health Contact Numbers;

During Business Hours (Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm)    905-688-8248

After Hours, Weekends & Holidays    905-984-3690

For any serious animal bite or immediate risk you should first call 911. If safe to do so, try to get information about the animal, including a description, location and owner information if that is available. Rabies is preventable with timely treatment.

Preventing Rabies

  • The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources distributes oral rabies vaccine baits every year to try to break the transmission of the disease in wild animals, with remarkable effect. The aerial baiting campaigns have been estimated to reduce rabies incidence by 99% since the 1990s.
  • Bats pose the biggest risk for human rabies in Ontario because they mostly eat insects, so can’t be vaccinated orally by the baits used for other mammals. Bat-proof your home by sealing any openings. The latest news reports about a Brantford daycare with bat exposure involving children and staff alluded to more than one bat somehow getting inside an older building.  They are small animals and are known to squeeze through openings a half inch or less in size.  They have flexible bones and soft bodies.  They often enter attics or buildings through tiny cracks in siding, vents, or gaps under roof shingles. If you are trying to bat-proof a building, any gap ¼ inch or larger should be sealed, especially near rooflines, soffits, chimneys, or vents.
  • To report any unusual bat deaths, contact the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre either by phone at 1-866-673-4781 or online, using their online reporting tool
  • Do not touch or handle bats (dead or alive). Contact the local health unit or pest control for assistance.
  • Wash any bite wounds from any animal immediately and thoroughly with soap and water (preferably) or hand sanitizer if it is the only thing available. We’re talking at least 15 minutes with soap and running water. Then apply an antiseptic like Povidone-iodine (Betadine) or 70% alcohol, or hydrogen peroxide.
  • Get medical attention and report the incident. All bites are considered reportable.
  • Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is critical, and the cost is covered by OHIP. Your medical advisor will also consider tetanus and antibiotic, depending on the wound.
  • Vaccinate all pets for rabies. It is the law, and it makes sense. Booster shots are necessary if pets are exposed to bats unless the bat itself tests negative. Remember that you may not be aware of exposure, either. A bat that finds its way into a building may find its way out without saying “hello, I’m here”. If you do find a bat, and it tests negative, can you be sure it didn’t have a friend? You can’t be sure of the potential risk, even with indoor pets. I don’t know how many times I have heard people say that their cats are totally indoors, so they don’t need vaccinating. As the recent news stories have emphasized, being indoors is not a guarantee of safety.  It is your life, your human family’s lives, and the lives of your furry family, too.

You Can Help to Stop the Spread of Rabies in Other Ways

  • check your cargo, truck, boat and trailer for stowaway wildlife like raccoons, especially if you’re leaving the United States.
  • remove food sources around your home that might attract wildlife, including pet food.
  • contact local animal control if you find a wild animal in your house, truck or cargo.
  • don’t trap and relocate wildlife without approval from the ministry. It’s important to never move wild animals more than one kilometre

Reporting a rabid animal in the wild

If you suspect a wild animal may have rabies:

  1. If humans have been exposed, report the incident to your local health unit, doctor or local emergency department, as previously mentioned.
  2. If a domestic animal may have been exposed, call your veterinarian.
    • If you are a veterinarian and need help assessing whether an animal has been exposed to rabies, check out the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMARA) update that provides a risk assessment flowchart and how to access support online, and call their Agricultural Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300
  3. If neither a human nor a domestic animal has been exposed, and the animal is alive and it can be done safely, confine the animal and then call one of the following:
  4. If neither a human nor a domestic animal has been exposed, and the animal is dead call the ministry’s Wildlife Health Information Line at 1-888-574-6656.
  5. For dead bats, contact the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at 1-866-673-4781 or report using their online reporting tool.

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