How many animal bites and rabies cases happen in Sussex County? Breakdown by the numbers

April continued a trend of more animal bites to Sussex County residents, but, so far, there have been no cases of rabies in humans while there have been at least three confirmed cases in animals sent to the state labs to be tested for the viral disease.

Sussex County Health Officer Jennifer Shortino provided information which shows the first four months of 2023 saw 184 reported cases of humans being bit by animals, the most in the opening months of a year in the past six years.

The lowest came in 2020 when there were 84 bites in the months of January through April. Last year, the January-April period saw 165 such cases.

By state health law all animal bites, except from agricultural livestock, must be reported to the health department which then begins an investigation of the case. Dogs and cats usually lead the list and most often those pet animals have received rabies vaccinations.

Rabies and animal bite cases by the numbers

In April there were 39 cases investigated, with 22 of them dogs and 10 from cats. The department said there were another two each reported bites from raccoons and coyote, and one each from a bat, a fox and a pet coati, a relative of raccoons which is native to the southwestern U.S.

One animal was sent for testing and three people received what is known as PEP treatment. The letters stand for Postexposure Prophylaxis, which includes a dose of human rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine given on the day of exposure followed by three more doses over the following two weeks.

Transmission of rabies isn't always from a bite but can just be exposure to the saliva of the infected animal.

In January, two humans received PEP treatment while there were six patients undergoing the process in February and six in March. In March, the variety of animals ranged from dogs, cats and raccoons, to bats, a groundhog, mouse, squirrel and a guinea pig.

Ten of the 56 cases investigated in March resulted in animals being sent to the state for testing and of those, three tested positive, including a raccoon in Wantage, bat in Hamburg and a second bat from Hampton.

In January, there were two people who underwent PEP from a total of 37 domestic or wild bite exposure reports. That included a rat, a bat and a goat. Also included were four "out of jurisdiction" investigations of Sussex County residents being exposed in another county.

In February, one case involved a "bird," but rabies is only carried by mammals. And the disease must be "active" for the virus to be passed on through a bite or saliva.

The rabies virus infects the central nervous system of mammals, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death. The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year occur in wild animals like bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes, although any mammal can get rabies.

Rabies clinics for domestic pets such as dogs, cats and other mammals, are conducted by the Sussex Conty Division of Health and many of the municipalities in the county.

Rabies cases by animal

The raccoon population in the eastern U.S. from Maine to Florida, is the most common source of rabies but bats are the leading cause of rabies deaths in people in the United States. Raccoons are much larger animals, so contact with them is easy to determine.

However, the size of bats, able to squeeze through a hole or crack the size of a dime, makes them more dangerous because they can inflict minor, seemingly unimportant, or unrecognized bites or scratches. Rabies postexposure prophylaxis is recommended for any person with a bite or scratch from a bat, unless the bat is available for testing and tests negative for rabies.

In one bat case in March from Hampton, the animal was recovered by was considered unsatisfactory for testing, so the human began the PEP series.

Shortino's data included an email exchange from last summer in which state health officials asked Fish and Wildlife experts if they could explain a high number of bat exposures last August. Just in Sussex County, there were 107 confirmed animal bite cases reported most of them bats.

The email said the state laboratory had tested more than 430 bats, most of them the big brown species. "It's the most we ever had for the month by almost 10%. Is there a reason for this or did we just get unlucky this year?" asked the state health official.

Last August turned out to be the hottest August on record and according to the response, "heat is definitely a factor in pushing bats into human living spaces, especially if there's a colony in the attic."

Once in the living area, the bat becomes "trapped" and can't find its way back to the "crack" and the rest of its colony.

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The first symptoms of rabies can be nonspecific and include lethargy, fever and vomiting. As the disease progresses, the affected animal can get hostile and may try to bite or attack you or other animals.

In movies, animals with rabies look like they are foaming at the mouth. But that's the movies. What´s really happening is that the rabies creates more saliva and makes the animal drool.

But that's not always the case. Other animals may act timid or shy when they have rabies. The rabies virus attacks an animal's brain, which is what laboratories test to confirm the disease.

It is best to avoid wild animals, even if they appear "friendly."

According to the numbers provided by Shortino, in 2018 the county investigated 458 potential rabies cases with just over a quarter of them occurring in the first four months of the year. In 2019 there were 440 cases for the year, 23% from January-April and in 2020, there were 491 for the entire year, but just 17% in the first four months.

In 2021, the county's health department investigated 714 cases for the year and there were 774 investigations last year.

Of those 774 investigations, there were just three cases of rabies confirmed by the state lab, all in raccoons. In 2021, there were five raccoon cases and one each in a fox, a cat and a woodchuck. Since 1989, when the raccoon strain of rabies was first detected, the county has had 482 confirmed rabies cases.

Fatal cases of rabies in people in New Jersey is rare with just two in the past 60 years. One occurred in 1971 and the other in 1997.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sussex County NJ April 2023 stats on animal bites, rabies cases