Rabid Baby Goats Send Health Officials Scrambling to Find Everyone Who Cuddled Them - Gizmodo
Health officials in North Carolina are tracking individuals who interacted with baby goats at a mobile petting zoo after the animals tested positive for rabies. The outbreak was linked to a wild skunk that entered the goats' enclosure.
Why it matters
Public health alerts regarding zoonotic diseases are essential to prevent the spread of fatal infections like rabies in human populations.
A petting zoo in North Carolina may have been spreading more than just joy as of late.
Over the weekend, officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported an outbreak of rabies centered around the Farm Adventures mobile petting zoo based in Iredell County. At least four baby goats from the zoo contracted the highly fatal infection, all of which have been euthanized. Officials are urging any people who interacted with the goats in the last month to contact their local health department to determine whether they should get preventative rabies treatment.
“Several goats at Farm Adventures have tested positive for rabies by the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health and may have been in direct contact with people at events while infectious,” the department stated Friday.
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