A bobcat that attacked a couple this week in New York state tested positive for rabies, a spokeswoman for the Albany County Executive’s office said.
The bobcat was shot and killed Wednesday after attacking and biting a couple visiting a friend’s home in New Scotland, near Albany. The New York State Department of Health later took the bobcat to its Wadsworth Center Laboratory for testing and learned Thursday the bobcat had rabies, said Mary Rozak, communications director for the Albany County Executive’s office.
The couple received treatment for their wounds Wednesday as well as vaccines, and will periodically receive more vaccines over the next two weeks, Rozak said.
The couple has not been identified publicly, she said.
The number of bobcats has been increasing across New York state, but they “are not common in high numbers in any one location” because they often live alone, said Benning DeLaMater, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, in a statement.
There have been 12 documented cases of rabid bobcats in the state since 1990, DeLaMater said, adding that five of those cases involved bites or scratches to humans. All 12 cases “were a result of the raccoon variant of rabies,” DeLaMater said.
The bobcat that attacked the couple smelled of skunk spray and its face was covered in porcupine quills, DeLaMater said.
Skunks are among the animals most likely to transmit rabies, said Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases researcher at the Mayo Clinic. Tosh said he couldn't speculate as to whether a skunk may have transmitted the rabies to the bobcat, since he is not involved in this case.
Rabies is a fatal disease if it's not treated quickly, Tosh said. Symptoms of rabies are often similar to the flu and can include nausea, vomiting, agitation, difficulty swallowing, hallucinations, insomnia and partial paralysis, according to the Mayo Clinic.
But by the time symptoms of rabies appear, it's "usually too late" to save the person infected, Tosh said. "People should seek medical treatment immediately when bitten by an animal."
