Developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have additional problems in that dog rabies is common and preventive treatment for human rabies may be difficult to obtain. The importance of rabid dogs in these countries, where tens of thousands of people die of the disease each year, cannot be overstated. Dog rabies vaccination programs in developing countries have not always been successful as in the United States. Any mammal can get rabies. The most common wild reservoirs of rabies are raccoons, skunks, bats, foxes, and coyotes.
Domestic mammals can also get rabies.
Cats, cattle, and dogs are the most frequently reported rabid domestic animals in the United States. People usually get rabies from the bite of a rabid animal. It is also possible that people may get rabies if infectious material from a rabid animal, such as saliva, gets directly into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound. Non-bite exposures to rabies are rare. Scratches, abrasions, open wounds, or mucous membranes contaminated with saliva or other potentially infectious material from a rabid animal constitute non-bite exposures.