Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pennsyltucky

I'd like to thank our esteemed colleagues in Pennsylvania for sharing with us an excerpt from an email recently sent out to veterinarians in that state. Apparently their regional veterinarian makes a habit of sending out monthly maps showing where there have been diagnosed cases of rabies and listings of potential exposures and so on. The March mailing contained this paragraph:
The maps are attached for your use.  There was nothing terribly unusual last month. I will, however, share with you a rabies case we just received a few days ago in which the person who was being attacked by the rabid raccoon killed, butchered and ate said raccoon.  Interestingly, usually even the dogs we deal with that kill rabid raccoons do not seem to eat them.  While eating a properly cooked rabid animal does not necessarily constitute an exposure, the butchering of the rabid animal can often lead to human exposures and so butchering of rabid animals for consumption is not advisable.

Good to know.

11 comments:

  1. You just know this notice has ruined some rural family's Thanksgiving dinner.

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  2. And in Europe they're worried about a bit of unauthorised horse...

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  3. I have an old cookbook which lists a recipe for 'New Bruswick Stew'. It begins with 'Have your butcher dress 3 YOUNG squirrels..'

    Not old squirrels.

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    Replies
    1. What do you dress them as? Alvin, Theodore, and Simon?

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    2. Dr. Grumpy, you win the internet.

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    3. Old squirrels are so tough you can't stick a fork in em. Just sayin.

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  4. Well the old ones are tough. We still eat squirrel in MD. :) Just not raccoon... ugh.

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  5. Right, next time just swallow it whole.

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  6. Speaking of MD, this idiot woman got rabies exposure from a deer. It attacked her. She then put its head in a bucket of water. She gave no explanation why she stuck its head in water. The deer spit mixing with water is what gave her the rabies exposure, since her hands were cut up by the deer.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/rosenwald-md/post/news-of-the-deer-woman-kicked-in-face-by-rabid-deer/2012/07/17/gJQAJY16qW_blog.html

    http://times-news.com/local/x1447686627/Deer-with-rabies-kicks-LaVale-woman-in-the-face

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