Rabid beaver attacks

This summer has seen a number of people innocently enjoying the water in the north eastern US attacked by an unusual threat; rabid beavers.

In July, 11 and 8 year-old sisters swimming in a lake in Virginia were attacked by a rabid beaver. One required around 15 stitches on her upper thigh, whilst the other sustained three wounds just above her knee,

In August, a 51 year old boy scout leader was attacked whilst swimming in the Delaware River. A beaver swam through his legs and bit him in the chest. The man managed to throw the animal away, but it came back biting him in the leg, buttocks, arm, hand and torso before he managed to grab it and hold its jaw closed. He finally threw the animal ashore where boy scouts killed it with stones.

In September, an 83 year old lady taking her regular swim in another lake in Virginia was just leaving the water when a beaver attacked her and started chewing on her leg. The lady, a friend and later a paramedic fought with the animal for over 20 minutes, usingcanoe paddles to try and beat it away, and finally trapped it in a fishing net.

Finally, in September, children that had just finished a fishing competition at a Nature Centre watched as a beaver leapt out of the water, onto the dock and started acting aggressively and chasing them. In this case fortunately the children were taken to safety, no-one was injured, and animal control officers shot the beaver.

In all cases the animal was killed and later tested positive for rabies.

 

Summarised by Louise Taylor from news reports in the Huffington Post, Huffington Post, Washington Post and on CBSnews. Although the news reports do not state the variant, it seems most likely that these were spillover infections of the raccoon rabies variant.