The incubation period in man is usually three to eight weeks, but may be as long as two years. Early symptoms may include numbness around the site of the bite, fever, headache, and general malaise. Later symptoms may include muscle spasms and hydrophobia. In Asia, Africa and Central and South America it also commonly infects domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, but rabies in domestic animals is very rare in Europe and North America. Bites from any of these animals can transmit the infection to other domestic and farm animals, and man.
Bats can also transmit rabies and rabies-like viruses.
In those parts of Western Europe where rabies is present in wildlife, it mainly infects foxes. Strenuous measures to control European fox rabies, for instance by vaccine left in baits, has reversed the movement of fox rabies towards the Channel ports, while strictly enforced quarantine regulations continue to prevent the introduction of other infected animals into Britain. In spite of its endemicity in foxes, rabies is rare in other animals in Western Europe, and extremely rare in man. There were 12 such cases between 1969 and 1996. Typically the patient had been bitten by a dog within the previous few weeks or months in an Asian or African country.