“ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A second interior Alaska wolf has tested positive for rabies, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Thursday.
A trapper captured the wolf March 15 near Chandalar Lake near the foothills of the Brooks range about 185 miles north of Fairbanks, the same general location as a rabid wolf shot last month. The trapper killed the wolf, skinned it and fed raw meat from the carcass to his dog team, said spokeswoman Cathie Harms. The five dogs are in quarantine in Fairbanks.
The dogs had been vaccinated for rabies but will be given booster shots, the department said.
Rabies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a viral disease that can infect mammals, including humans. It’s usually transmitted through bites but can also spread by coming into contact with infected nerve tissue such as brains or spinal cords.
The rabies virus infects the central nervous system and can cause death, according to the CDC.
Rabies is regularly detected in Arctic foxes along Alaska’s west and north coasts but had not been found south of the Brooks Range since statehood in 1959, the department said.
“We’re still trying to get a clearer picture of the current situation, especially in wolves in the Chandalar Lake area,” Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, a department veterinarian, said in the announcement. “We’d really like to hear from the people who have seen wolves or other wildlife acting abnormally in that area. Abnormal behavior can also be caused by diseases other than rabies, such as distemper, so a test of brain tissue is required for a definitive diagnosis of the disease.”
Both rabid wolves exhibited abnormal behavior when they were killed.
Wolves normally are shy, but a trapper who shot the wolf last month said the animal had closely approached him.
The trapper, a man who lives near Palmer, took the animal home with him and cut himself while skinning it. Worried that the animal may have been infected, he sent the head in for testing and discarded the rest of the carcass in a wooded area.
When the department confirmed rabies, which can be spread to other animals that eat nerve tissue such as brains or spinal cords, the carcass was retrieved. The carcass had been scavenged, but the spinal cord had not been disturbed, officials said.
The wolf caught in a leg trap March 15 was alive when the trapper approached but appeared dull and unaware, the department said.
The trapper killed the animal, skinned it and fed the raw meat to his dogs.
Beckman said they should not have been fed the carcass.
“It’s very dangerous to feed raw carcasses of wildlife, especially carnivores, to pets,” Beckmen said. “Pets can not only become infected, they can then transmit diseases and parasites to their owners, rabies, tularemia and echinococcus being the most serious.”
Echinococcus is a bacterial infection, Harms said.
Rabies had not been diagnosed in the region in 54 years of statehood, but archived territorial reports document cases of rabies in fox and dogs in interior Alaska, the department said.
Beckmen said she’s looking for more samples from the heads of wolves, wolverines, foxes or coyotes killed near the Chandalar Lakes or Fortymile River areas.
Rabies has been detected over the winter along the north and west coasts and more cases are expected in the arctic fox and red fox populations. Village dogs, the department said, are vulnerable to infection from foxes.
Alaska health officials warn trappers and hunters to wear gloves when skinning animals, wash wounds with soap and water, wash knives after cutting off heads and avoid cutting into brains or spinal cords.”
Special thanks to DAN JOLING, Associated Press, for providing the information in this post!
The Wolf Preservation Blog 