Some seals in South Africa are testing positive for rabies.

[Concerto]

I did not know that rabies could jump to marine mamals, but tests are showing rabies is some seals in South Africa. I wonder how long it will take to spread to other colonies of seals.

Nine seals test positive for rabies in South Africa

 

[Stemar]

Nasty. From there, it isn't a long stretch to imagine rabid orcas being next.

 

[sarabande]

I worked on rabies, F&M, BSE response planning for 10 years for the Home Office/Defra. Seals and rabies are not new to the UK. The last one IIRC was in Plymouth about 8 years ago. But rabies develops easily across animal species, e.g. foxes, ferrets, cats, humans. I'll try and check for UK records.


I imagine that worrying about developing rabies from being bitten by an orca would be the least of a sailor's worries...

 

[Stemar]

I imagine that worrying about developing rabies from being bitten by an orca would be the least of a sailor's worries...

Indeed . What I was thinking was that orcas travel a long way, and could get to UK waters and spread rabies via our seals to land animals. I had no idea that we'd already had cases of seals with rabies.

 

[Sandy]

Who in their right mind gets up closed and personal to a seal?

 

[RivalRedwing]

Who in their right mind gets up closed and personal to a seal?

Divers, kayakers, surfers ?

 

[WoodyP]

I thought that rabies lead to hydrophobia. Tricky for sea mammals.

 

[Stemar]

Who in their right mind gets up closed and personal to a seal?

Foxes if a seal is dying or dead. That's a good route for rabies to get loose in the UK

 

[Sandy]

Divers, kayakers, surfers ?

Only if they want to. A swimmer was badly bitten in Plymouth Sound a few years ago.

Seals can be avoided.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Foxes if a seal is dying or dead. That's a good route for rabies to get loose in the UK

I think it is spread by saliva into wounds and dead seals dont generate either

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Seals share other diseases with dogs (distemper viruses, for one) so it isn't surprising.

And no-one in their right mind should approach seals close enough to be bitten. They are obligate carnivores with a mouthful of very sharp teeth if they decide you're either a threat or prey. And yes, people do suffer seal bites - the BAS medics reckoned they were very difficult to treat, because a) they weren't clean cuts and b) seals don't brush their teeth and have an "interesting" variety of bacteria etc. living in their mouths.

Ok, some species are placid and unlikely to bite (Weddell seals come to mind) but the ones native to the UK can and do bite.

 

[Dave 71]

Only if they want to. A swimmer was badly bitten in Plymouth Sound a few years ago.

Seals can be avoided.

Diving in the Farne Islands, the seals come to you. Never heard of anyone being bitten, but they would tug on your fins. They swim rings round you, nothing you can do to avoid them.

Elsewhere, they would usually show curiosity but maintain a distance, but some individuals seemed to have worked out that fishing boats in particular would often be a source of food, and would hang around and even get a little 'pushy' if not fed.

And there are enough idiots who don't know to stay off certain beaches when they pup, although they deserve to get bitten

 

[sarabande]

I do recall that it used to be the case when human beings catch rabies, that only very experienced nursing staff were permitted to care for seriously or terminally ill patients. With rabies vaccines now held at distributed centres, rather than centrally, so that treatment can begin as soon as possible after a patient presents, and with wildlife monitoring carried out all the time by APHA (the part of Defra focused on animal and plant epi- and pan-demics), the chances of a full scale rabies outbreak as might have been experienced 40 years ago are much reduced.

But as my local National Park has just in this last few days made public announcements about the currently high risks from ticks (lyme disease) having up to date contingency plans for rabies, BSE, F&M, etc., would be high on my list of emergency planning procedures. Just check out what has happened to avian flu.

Bird flu (avian influenza): latest situation in England.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, there have been several instances of avian flu transferring to human beings, and multiple (i.e. hundreds) of cases of cattle being infected. The ability of avian flu to jump species is nothing unusual. I expect that in South Africa there is much monitoring of what are called "sentinel populations" (seal and other marine mammal colonies at the edge of an outbreak) and the animal health arm of the government will be testing seal bodies for rabies.

DAFF in South Africa does seem to be quite well prepared.

https://www.dalrrd.gov.za/images/Br...controlled-and-notifiable-animal-diseases.pdf

 

[Puffin10032]

Diving in the Farne Islands, the seals come to you. Never heard of anyone being bitten, but they would tug on your fins. They swim rings round you, nothing you can do to avoid them.

Elsewhere, they would usually show curiosity but maintain a distance, but some individuals seemed to have worked out that fishing boats in particular would often be a source of food, and would hang around and even get a little 'pushy' if not fed.

And there are enough idiots who don't know to stay off certain beaches when they pup, although they deserve to get bitten

I totally agree. I don't know why people regurgitate the trope that the wildlife is out to get us. It simply isn't true (biting invertebrates excepted). Mammals will generally avoid conflict and will only attack you if they feel cornered (so can't escape the perceived threat) or think you're a threat to their young.

 

[sarabande]

Have you heard of crocodiles ?

 

[Stemar]

And lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

They are mammals, though not too many on the loose in the UK, fortunately

 

[Puffin10032]

Have you heard of crocodiles ?

It depends on the species.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I do recall that it used to be the case when human beings catch rabies, that only very experienced nursing staff were permitted to care for seriously or terminally ill patients. With rabies vaccines now held at distributed centres, rather than centrally, so that treatment can begin as soon as possible after a patient presents, and with wildlife monitoring carried out all the time by APHA (the part of Defra focused on animal and plant epi- and pan-demics), the chances of a full scale rabies outbreak as might have been experienced 40 years ago are much reduced.

But as my local National Park has just in this last few days made public announcements about the currently high risks from ticks (lyme disease) having up to date contingency plans for rabies, BSE, F&M, etc., would be high on my list of emergency planning procedures. Just check out what has happened to avian flu.

Bird flu (avian influenza): latest situation in England.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, there have been several instances of avian flu transferring to human beings, and multiple (i.e. hundreds) of cases of cattle being infected. The ability of avian flu to jump species is nothing unusual. I expect that in South Africa there is much monitoring of what are called "sentinel populations" (seal and other marine mammal colonies at the edge of an outbreak) and the animal health arm of the government will be testing seal bodies for rabies.

DAFF in South Africa does seem to be quite well prepared.

https://www.dalrrd.gov.za/images/Br...controlled-and-notifiable-animal-diseases.pdf

Many human illnesses originated in our livestock once we started farming. Flu came from guinea fowl or chickens, and I think TB came from cows. Germs like a varied diet it seems, however bubonic plague was mostly spread human to flea to human with little rat involvement

 

[Puffin10032]

And lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

They are mammals, though not too many on the loose in the UK, fortunately

Not many in the wild either. I've heard estimates of only about 15,000 Lions left in the whole of Africa. Tigers are on the brink of extinction. Bears are not doing well in most of the world. All killed by humans, often for fun. So who's the bigger danger to who?

 

[Puffin10032]

Many human illnesses originated in our livestock once we started farming. Flu came from guinea fowl or chickens, and I think TB came from cows. Germs like a varied diet it seems, however bubonic plague was mostly spread human to flea to human with little rat involvement

Research has indicated that Bovine TB originated in Humans not the other other way around.