Rabid dog is first found in county in decades

Animal control officials were canvassing the Tomball area Saturday after a stray dog — confirmed to be the first canine in Harris County to test positive for rabies in decades — bit a shelter worker earlier this month.

County health officials on Saturday asked anyone who may have had contact with a brown and black Labrador retriever mix in the 77377 ZIP code of the Tomball area between Jan. 4 and Jan. 10 to notify them.

Residents took the dog to Houston’s BARC Animal Shelter and Adoptions on Jan. 10, said Dr. Umair A. Shah, executive director of the county’s Public Health and Environmental Services. It bit one of the shelter workers and was tested for rabies. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, confirmed it had tested positive, the first dog in the county to do so since 1979, Shah said.

The disease, caused by a virus that infects the central nervous system in mammals, is nearly always fatal in humans who haven’t received vaccinations before or after being exposed. But it rarely occurs.

Human rabies cases in the U.S. average only about two per year while about 500 pets contract the disease annually, according to the American Humane Association.

Both the shelter worker and the people who picked up the dog are receiving treatment and are not in danger, Shah said.

“The general risk to the community is very, very low,” he said, noting the dog didn’t display any symptoms and its initial test was inconclusive meaning it was likely in the very early stages of the disease.

An animal can only transmit rabies after developing clinical signs, after which it will die within 10 days. The dog was last seen acting normally on Jan. 14 when it was euthanized as part of the rabies test, Shah said.

“The risk to the community, even someone who may have been exposed, is minimal. However out of an abundance of caution, we are asking people to contact us,” he said.

Rabies is almost always transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. In Texas, the skunk strain causes a majority of the rabid animal cases.

The second most prevalent strain comes from bats, for which there is no known vaccine. In 2006, a teenager in Humble died after contracting rabies from a bat.

Anyone who’s been bitten or interacted with the saliva of the dog is asked to immediately call Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services at 281-999-3191.

They also asked residents to maintain current rabies vaccinations for all dogs and cats over 4 months of age.

lomi.kriel@chron.com