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Epidemiologic Notes and Reports Rabies in a Javelina --
Arizona
On March 1, 1986, a 47-year-old woman and her husband were
hunting
javelina (collared peccary, Pecari angulatus, a pig-like mammal)
near
the Superstition Mountains, east of Phoenix, Arizona. The woman
saw a
javelina "chasing its tail"; she was subsequently attacked and
bitten
by the animal on her left upper thigh. Her husband shot the animal
to
dislodge it from her thigh. The bite resulted in a jagged 3H inch
wound, and the woman was treated at a local hospital. The animal
was
diagnosed as rabid by the direct immunofluorescent antibody test on
a
brain specimen, from which rabies virus was also isolated. The
woman
received rabies postexposure prophylaxis.
Reported by M Hetrick, H Goodman, MD, Gila County Dept of Health, M
Wright, D Woodall, R Cheshire, J Doll, PhD, SJ Englender, MD, LF
Novick, MD, C Levy, GG Caldwell, MD, State Epidemiologist, Arizona
Dept of Health Svcs; Viral and Rickettsial Zoonoses Br, Div of
Viral
Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC. Editorial Note
Editorial Note: This is the first report of rabies in a javelina.
Bites by javelina are most likely to occur while the animals are
being
sought as game. Javelina are found south of 35 N latitude in parts
of
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, most of Central America except for
central Mexico, and south to Colombia.
Almost all wildlife rabies in the United States occurs among
skunk, raccoon, bat, and fox species (in decreasing frequency of
reported cases); however, the disease is occasionally found in an
unexpected host. The origin of rabies in these animals can be
investigated by typing the virus with a panel of monoclonal
antibodies
(mabs) to nucleocapsid proteins (1).
On the basis of nucleocapsid reactivity with a panel of mabs,
five
antigenically distinct groups of rabies viruses can be formed from
isolates collected from the major terrestrial wildlife rabies
enzootic
areas of the United States (Figure 1). These five antigenically
distinct groups comprise isolates collected from: (1) skunk rabies
areas of California and the north central United States and gray
fox
rabies areas of central Texas; (2) skunk rabies areas of the south
central United States; (3) raccoon rabies areas of the mid-Atlantic
and southeastern United States; (4) red fox rabies areas of the
northeast United States; and (5) gray fox rabies areas of Arizona.
There are two separate enzootic hosts for rabies in Arizona,
the
striped skunk and the gray fox. Virus isolates from these two
species
can easily be distinguished with mabs. Rabies virus from the
javelina
was identical to that found in rabid gray foxes in Arizona,
suggesting
that the infection in the javelina was the result of spillover from
enzootic disease in foxes. The reaction pattern found in virus
isolates from foxes in Arizona is unique among over 300 rabies
isolates collected from terrestrial mammals elsewhere in the United
States. Moreover, the virus strains in foxes and skunks in Arizona
are different from each other, even when infected animals of both
species are found in the same area. Fox virus isolates from Texas
also differ in their reactivity pattern from skunks in Texas, even
when isolates from both species are collected in the same county.
This observation is unique to Arizona and Texas.
Rabies laboratories are encouraged to submit for monoclonal
antibody typing brain specimens from rabies cases that occur
unexpectedly in a new species or area. Such specimens should be
submitted through state health departments to CDC.
This case emphasizes the importance of assessing every mammal
bite
individually for the possibility of rabies. After the bite of a
wild
animal, the decision to administer postexposure rabies prophylaxis
is
based on the results of fluorescent antibody examination of the
animal
brain, the status of rabies activity in the area where the bite
occurred, and the species of biting animal.
Reference
Smith JS, Sumner JW, Roumillat LF, Baer GM, Winkler WG.
Antigenic
characteristics of isolates associated with a new epizootic of
raccoon rabies in the United States. J Infect Dis
1984;149:769-74.
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