Animal Services: Rabid Raccoon Recently Found in Durham

Orange County Animal Services alerted the community to a positive rabies test on Thursday from a racoon near the county line.

A release from the department said a raccoon returned a positive test stemming from an incident on Friday, December 8 in the area of U.S. Highway 70 and Linden Road — which is part of Durham, despite being within the Orange County lines. A resident reported a possible altercation between the raccoon and their dog, which prompted Animal Control to remove the racoon and send it to the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health.

The rabies case marks Orange County’s sixth reported in 2023, compared to bot 2021 and 2022’s respective totals of four. Raccoons, which are a common animal to catch rabies, made up three of those six cases so far this calendar year — with a raccoon being taken by Animal Control in April after being spotted in Chapel Hill and another in May near Mt. Carmel Church Road. Two rabid skunks and a fox making up the rest of the total.

As a reminder to residents, Orange County Animal Services also said the viral infection is transmitted through secondary saliva exposure, people should not touch their pets without gloves is there’s concern of a possible exposure to a rabid animal. If an animal is seen acting strangely, the county department urges people not to try and capture the animal, but instead to call Animal Control or 911.

Because of cases like Friday’s, the department also encouraged the community to follow North Carolina’s law about maintaining a current, valid rabies vaccination for dogs, cats and ferrets older than four months. Whenever there is “a reasonable suspicion of exposure” to a rabid animal, the pet must receive a booster shot within 96 hours if they are up on their vaccination. If unvaccinated or outside of that four-day window, cats and dogs must either be euthanized or quarantined up to four months and ferrets are quarantined up to six months.

Orange County Animal Services hosts periodic low-cost rabies vaccination clinics for dogs and cats — although cases of canine influenza in the broader community led to the latest clinics being cancelled. For more information on clinics and future dates, visit the county government’s website. Additional rabies resources from Orange County can be found here.

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Animal Services: Rabid Raccoon Recently Found in Durham

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