Feb 11, 2008 By Steve Ferris 6 min read

The eight rabies vaccinations that were injected within moments of each other into Al Sloan’s legs and arms were more painful than the bite of the small bat that surreptitiously found its way into his Uniontown house. “They were uncomfortable,” Sloan said about the shots, which mercifully ended after the bat tested negative for the rabies virus.

He said he would have received four more shots if the results went the other way.

Representatives of the state Department of Agriculture took the bat, which Sloan captured in a jar after the bite, and tested it for rabies.

Sloan said he went to Uniontown Hospital immediately after being bitten on Jan. 7, and a doctor explained that he couldn’t delay administering the series of rabies vaccinations until he received the test results. If the tests revealed the bat had rabies, the virus could have taken hold before the vaccine would have been administered.

“My option was to start the shots or I may die,” Sloan said. “They started the shots right away.”

The negative results came in Jan. 9, the day before he would have received his next shot. The remaining three shots would have been administered in weekly intervals.

The Agriculture Department workers who went to his house after he returned from the hospital told him they preemptively undergo the vaccination series as a precaution. If they are bitten in the line of duty, they would only need a booster shot to ensure their protection from the virus, he said.

Sloan said he doesn’t know what species of the small brown bat infiltrated his house, but he estimated it measured 21/2 inches from head to tail and 11/2 inches wide with its wings folded closed.

He suspects the bat sneaked into the house through the basement or attic before one of his cats managed to catch it. He didn’t know what the cat had until he tried to dispose of it.

“I don’t know how it got in. I thought it was a piece of paper. I went to throw it away and it bit me,” Sloan said.

Its sharp teeth inflicted little pain when they pierced the tip of his finger, he said.

The bite hurt less than his eight vaccine injections: three in each leg and one in each arm.

He said the shots were uncomfortable, but he was glad the bat didn’t have rabies because that would have meant four more shots.

Bats rank among the top five wild and domestic animals for the incidence of rabies in the state, even though more raccoons have tested positive for the virus than any other species for more than the last 20 years.

The Agriculture Department reported 441 wild and domestic animals statewide, including one bat in Fayette County and one bat in Greene County, tested positive for rabies last year.

Raccoons, skunks, bats, cats and foxes have had the highest incidence of rabies since the mid-1980s and that trend continued last year, according the Agriculture Department.

Raccoons accounted for 274 cases – more than half of the state total – skunks, 62; bats, 34; cats, 27; and foxes, 17 in 2007. Other positive tests turned up on nine groundhogs, seven cows, four deer, two horses, two dogs, two bobcats and one sheep.

Most of the cats tested were feral, said Jean Kummer, a department spokeswoman.

In 2006, 505 animals state-wide tested positive, including three raccoons and a bat in Fayette County and a raccoon in Greene County.

Raccoons accounted for 283 cases, skunks, 62; cats, 58; bats, 41; foxes, 32; cows, seven; groundhogs, six; dogs, four; deer, four; and coyotes, two. One case each was confirmed in a horse, ferret, bobcat, goat, fisher and llama in 2006.

No animals tested positive for rabies in Washington County in 2006, but other surrounding counties had significant numbers of confirmed cases.

Westmoreland County had 26: 23 raccoons, two cats and one fox. Somerset had 18: 14 raccoons, two skunks, one cat and one fox.

The highest statewide total of confirmed cases of rabies in animals in recent years was 701 in 1989. There have been more than 330 cases every year since 1984. The most cases recorded was 902 in 1944, the first year records are available through the department’s Web site.

The records reveal a trend. From 1944 through the mid-1950s, dogs, cats and cattle accounted for most of the cases, but cats and wildlife became the dominant sources beginning the mid-1980s.

Raccoons have tested positive far more often than any other wild or domestic animal with more than 200 cases in all but one year since 1984.

The number of cases in skunks and foxes has been in double digits since 1986 and since 1995 in bats. There have been more than 20 cases a year in bats every year since 2000.

In cats, the number of confirmed cases has been 19 or more in every year except one since 1986.

The highest number of cat cases was 66 in 1989, according to the agriculture department.

Dogs used to have the highest incidence of rabies. The numbers dropped from 792 in 1944 to 116 in 1948. There have not been a double-digit number of cases in dogs since 17 were reported in 1956.

Animals spread the rabies virus through their saliva, according to the Agriculture Department.

Following a bite from an infected animal, the virus deposited in the wound spreads to adjacent tissue, according to the state Department of Health. The virus spreads to nerves, which send it to the brain. It then travels back through the nerves to the salivary glands, where it is shed in the saliva.

The first step in rabies prevention is to immediately wash the wound with soap and warm water, and then promptly seek medical care. Rabies vaccine is highly effective in preventing the disease after an exposure, if given before any symptoms develop, according to the health department.

If acting normally, dogs, cats and ferrets may be observed for 10 days from the day of the bite. If the pet is healthy after 10 days, it did not have rabies in its saliva at the time of the bite.

Observation is not an option for pets that are not acting normally. A veterinarian and local health authorities should be contacted.

The Agriculture Department says wild animals suspected of having rabies should be humanely killed without damaging the brain. A veterinarian should be contacted for safe procedures to have the animal or its head delivered to a qualified laboratory to determine if it is rabid. Plastic or rubber gloves should be worn when handling the animal.

The head or carcass of the specimen should be kept in a sealed container and refrigerated with ice. It should be frozen or stored in dry ice, according to the Agriculture Department.