Rabies is a fatal viral disease that affects the central nervous system of humans and other mammals, including horses. The disease causes progressive inflammation of the brain and spinal cord (known as encephalitis), resulting in death. Rabies occurs in most parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and most of Asia. Rabies is not present in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. However, there is a similar and related virus present in Australia, known as Australian bat lyssavirus, which is a type of lyssavirus, similar to Rabies. Both viruses belong to the Rhabdoviridae family.

Due to the availability of a vaccine, rabies in horses in North America is relatively uncommon. However, horses that aren't vaccinated against rabies are at risk of the disease. There is no known treatment to Rabies. The disease is 100 percent fatal to all infected animals, including humans. This is why it is very important to vaccinate horses for Rabies on a yearly basis.

Clinical Signs of Rabies

The clinical signs of rabies are variable, depending on where the infection occurs in the brain. Most frequent signs include sudden behavioral changes, followed by progressive paralysis, coma and death. The course of the disease is quick, lasting 4-7 days, sometimes less. Rabies always ends in death.

How Rabies is Spread

Horses are exposed to the rabies virus through exposure to saliva of an infected (rabid) animals---which usually occurs often from bites. Any mammal can become infected with rabies, but the most common hosts of threat to horses include raccoons, skunks, wild dogs, foxes, opossums, bats, or mongooses.

Horses are usually bitten on the muzzle, face, and lower limbs. Once bitten, the virus migrates via nerves to the horse's brain, where it initiates rapidly progressive, invariably fatal encephalitis. Rabies exposure and transmission occur only when the virus is introduced into bite wounds, into open cuts in skin, or onto mucous membranes from saliva or other potentially infectious material such as neural tissue.

How Long Until Horses Get Rabies

The incubation period for rabies in horses varies from 2-10 weeks depending on what part of the body is bitten. The average incubation period in horses is 12 days.