Wayne County health officials say they have seen a spike in rabies cases over the last year. And some of those cases may be related to a warmer than usual winter.
The county has seen a total of 13 confirmed rabies cases since January of last year, including raccoons, foxes, a dog and a horse.
Veronica Lafave-Boughton is rabies coordinator for Wayne County. She says they’ve had cases in January that they might not normally see, and that’s because the milder than usual temperatures means animals like raccoons aren’t hibernating like they normally would.
In any case, Lafave-Boughton says make sure you take the usual precautions.
"We recommend that you make sure all pets are up to date on vaccinations for rabies; if they do get exposed they should get a booster. And humans we just encourage them to stay away, some are cute , but they’re wild animals and we recommend that you don’t mess with them," Lafave-Boughton said.
Wayne County Director of Public Health Diane Devlin said there’s no specific reason on why cases have been up over the last year, even during the warmer months. But she notes that incidents of rabies are often cyclical.
There's more information about rabies at the NYS Dept. of Health website.
