Can squirrels get rabies?

My husband got bit by a squirrel and someone told us they can't get rabies or they don't carry it. Is this true?Can squirrels get rabies?
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.





Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and chipmunks, ) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area. However, from 1985 through 1994, woodchucks accounted for 86% of the 368 cases of rabies among rodents reported to CDC. Woodchucks or groundhogs (Marmota monax) are the only rodents that may be frequently submitted to state health department because of a suspicion of rabies. In all cases involving rodents, the state or local health department should be consulted before a decision is made to initiate postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).Can squirrels get rabies?
You can get rabies by them, why else would they bite you? Squirrels never bite unless they have rabies then they usually have like saliva by their mouth act weird and instead running away from humans they would attack them.





The following is from wikipedia


';Rabies may also spread through exposure to infected domestic farm animals, groundhogs, weasels and other wild carnivores. Squirrels, rodents and rabbits are seldom infected';
squirrels can get rabies.
Yes, they can get rabies...but they are not likely carriers. The squirrel would have had to be attacked by a rabid animal and probably would not have survived the attack to be able to be a carrier due to it's small size.
they are most likely to be eaten when they get into the contamined saliva, since this most likely is present near the mouth of a fox or a dog. anyway rabies infection has been observed with the roedeers, so why not with squirrels.


most squirells are not infected by rabies but they are simply daring.
yes,squirrels can get rabies. almost every outdoor animal can get rabies
Rabies is a viral zoonotic disease that causes acute encephalitis in mammals. Squirrels also can get rabies.
Rabies can be carried and transmitted by any mammal. No, squirrels are not one of the major reservoirs for the disease, but it is still very possible to get rabies from a squirrel.
Squirrels are seldom found to have rabies but it is possible. The reason is unkown, but perhaps if they are attacked by a rabid animal they are usually killed. There may also be something about squirrel biology that makes it difficult for them to become infected.





There are no second chances with rabies, however, so if you did not kill or capture the squirrel for testing, it is best to have the shots.
All warm blooded mammals can contract rabies. Rodents are the least likely to spread the virus due to the fact that they rarely survive the bite of an affected animal(the only means of tranmitting the virus is through bites or scratches that break the skin).
They absolutely can. As a matter of fact, there was a news story a few weeks ago about a rabid squirrel attacking two people before they were able to kill it. They then sent it off for testing bc of its irradical behavior, and it tested positive for rabies. So, of course, the two people who were attacked had to have a rabies vaccination. So, yes, they definitely can.
Any warm blooded animal can get rabies (yes, even horses and cows!). However, the most common vectors in the US are skunks, raccoons and bats. Rarely are other wild animals found with the disease.


Searching on rabies I found the following info:





Small rodents (such as squirrels, hamsters, prairie dogs, gerbils, chipmunks, gophers, rats,


mice, etc.) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are only rarely found to be infected with


rabies and have not been known to cause human rabies in the United States. The reason for this


appears to be that these small animals are unlikely to survive an attack from a rabid animal to


subsequently develop the disease.


The full document is here and includes a rabies risk assessment flow chart http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/aw/docu鈥?/a>





If in doubt, the animal should be captured and submitted for testing if possible.





Further, you should assess the circumstances of the bite. Was the bite warranted or did the squirrel act aggressively and without provocation? Was the squirrel acting in a particular way? What was the appearance of the squirrel? Often by the time animals are showing clinical signs of the disease, their physical appearance has substantially deteriorated (dull fur, dirty, unhealthy appearance). If the person bitten was offering food, or was otherwise interacting with the wild animal, a bite was probably a natural reaction due to being too close to the animal.