NewsDesk @bactiman63

The Taiwan Animal and Plant Epidemic Prevention and Quarantine Bureau of the Agriculture Committee announced last week the first positive cases of rabies in three ferret badger detected in Miaoli County.

Taiwan map/CIA

The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection carried out a monitoring plan to actively capture small carnivorous wild animals at the junction of the epidemic. A total of 3 ferrit badgers were captured in Zhuolan Township, Miaoli County on January 1, Zhuolan Township in Miaoli County on January 7, and Taian Township in Miaoli County on January 18.

These three cases submitted for inspection are the first positive cases of ferret badger rabies detected in the jurisdiction of Miaoli County.

The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection has asked the Animal Protection and Epidemic Prevention Office of Miaoli County to strengthen animal inspections and epidemic investigations within its jurisdiction, and appealed to the public that if they find any dead wild animals, they should notify the local animal epidemic prevention agency and do not handle it by themselves.

According to the Department of Disease Control and Prevention, rabies is an acute encephalomyelitis caused by rabies virus. Rabies virus enters the human body from the saliva of infected animals along with the wounds caused by scratching and biting. The incubation period is about 1 to 3 months. The initial symptoms include fever, sore throat, chills, anorexia, vomiting, dyspnea, cough, headache, or strange feeling at scratching and biting the site. Excitement and fear appear after a few days, and then develop into paralysis, difficulty swallowing, throat muscle spasm, and cause hydrophobia Phenomenon (also known as hydrophobia), followed by mental confusion and convulsions. If no medical measures are taken, patients often die due to respiratory paralysis. The fatality rate is nearly 100% without receiving rabies post-exposure vaccination.