Elephant Rabies?

Many of my loyal readers have written to ask about awful elephant rabies stories. There is only one and it is documented here:

http://www.zoosprint.org/ZooPrintJournal/2006/February/2172.pdf

Key information:

An 84-year-old female domesticated elephant presented with a 4-day history of lethargy. Appetite and water intake was normal but the following day she was unsteady, aggressive and restless. There were secretions from both temporal glands. On the sixth day she was completely anorectic, had developed paralysis of the trunk and was unable to stand, falling each time she tried to stand up, and she was noticed to be blind. She died on the ninth day after the first symptoms were observed. PM examination showed the brain to be more vascular than normal and a brain smear was positive for rabies antigen.

According to the Zoosprint article above, "elephants usually get bitten either on the trunk or hind limbs. During the last year (2007) one elephant was bitten on its trunk by a stray dog and was given post exposure vaccination and did not develop rabies. Because these elephants are always tethered they are more prone to wounds on their hind limbs. Hence the chances of transmission of rabies through lick from a rabid animal are very high."

How sad!

Here is a youtube clip that is interesting:

You Tube Rabies Alert