Rabies is a viral disease affecting the central nervous system. It is transmitted from infected mammals to man and is invariably fatal once symptoms appear. Human rabies is rare in the United States, but still frequently occurs in certain developing nations.
All mammals including man are susceptible to rabies.
In Wisconsin, skunks and bats are the most likely animals to carry the rabies virus, although rabies also has occurred with some regularity in dogs, cats, foxes, raccoons and livestock. Rabies is almost always contracted by exposure to a rabid animal. The exposure is nearly always through a bite, but rabies can also be transmitted if a rabid animal scratches a person or if its saliva comes into contact with broken skin. Because bites and scratches from bats may go unnoticed if a person is sleeping, is very young, or is mentally incapacitated, a physician should be contacted if a bat is found in the same room with a young child, or with a sleeping or mentally incapacitated adult. Early symptoms include irritability, headache, fever and sometimes itching or pain at the site of exposure.