Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I'm not sure where the "Fast-Evolving" tag came from.  It has always been 
known that in a given area there is usually one wild animal that is the 
reservoir for the disease.  In the west it is often bats, in WI it has been 
the skunk, in Europe it has been the fox.

I never heard an explanation until last year when I ran across the statement 
that there were different strains.  If an animal gets the strain for its 
species, it still kills it, and infection of people and other species is 
much more efficient because it takes longer to kill the animal, than rabies 
from another species would.

Apparently, what is being seen, reading between the lines (Disclaimer: I may 
be wrong.), is that in some areas multiple strains have started to 
circulate.  Conceivably, it could be from "fast evolution", or it could be 
that animals moved in from other areas.  However it happend, the result is 
that now there are more and more varied efficient carriers.  Not a good 
thing.

As far as concerns with side effects from immunizing or possibly "over 
immunizing" your horse, cat, or dog, the consideration is that as far as I 
know there has been in the history of the human race exactly one and only 
one person who has survived rabies.  The experimental treatment has not been 
duplicated.  Please note that this does not include the standard 
immunization of people after exposure, but before symptoms.  This used to be 
called the "Pasteur Treatment" after the famous French scientist.

It is the uniformly fatal nature of the disease coupled with the high 
likelyhood that you will get it from your infected animals, that 
conclusively argues that the possible side effects on companion animals, and 
horses are worth the risk.

Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser
2994 Mittower Road
Victor, MT 59875

(406) 381-5527

ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us 



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