Scientists analyzed the moose's brain and detected a variant of rabies usually found in Arctic foxes, suggesting it contracted the virus from a fox.
Scientists have confirmed the first ever case of rabies in an Alaska moose after a diseased animal stumbled into a small community and charged at residents while"drooling profusely.""The moose was unbalanced, stumbling, drooling profusely, and had bare patches of skin," Doug Vincent-Lang, the commissioner of Alaska's Department of Fish and Game , wrote in a statement. The animal was also"acting aggressively towards people.
Rabies is a virus that spreads through saliva and can occur in all warm-blooded mammals. Rabid animals often become aggressive and salivate excessively, or foam at the mouth. They may appear to be shaking or having seizures and display bite marks. Animals infected with the virus also behave abnormally, sometimes chewing on rocks and other non-food items.
However, this is the first rabid moose ever documented in Alaska. Previous cases of this disease in moose have been recorded in South Dakota, Minnesota, Canada and Russia, but rabies diagnosis in these animals is rare because they are solitary, according to the statement.—Doctors Thought a Woman Was Having a Panic Attack. She Actually Had Rabies.Moose are the largest members of the deer family.
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