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Anteater at Tennessee zoo contracts species’ 1st known case of rabies

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An anteater at a Tennessee zoo tested positive for the species’ first known case of rabies and was infected by a strain of the virus never before recorded in the state of Tennessee, health officials confirmed Thursday.

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The southern tamanduas, native to South America, fell ill in June 2021 after being transferred from a Virginia zoo, and potentially exposed more than a dozen people in Tennessee to the fatal virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent issue of the journal “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”

The animal was taken to the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine for research after it stopped eating and became persistently lethargic, but all treatments failed, and the anteater was euthanized on July 6, 2021, WATE-TV reported.

This case highlights the potential for “rabies translocation” from one geographic area to another through the movement of captive animals, the report’s authors wrote.

Rabies was not originally considered because the anteater did not display any bite marks, but clinicians confirmed the virus as the cause of death during a necropsy, and CDC officials believe the anteater contracted the virus from wild raccoons while it lived in the Virginia zoo, WATE-TV reported.

And although anteaters do not have teeth and could not infect people with rabies by biting them, the report’s authors estimated that as many as 13 people may have been exposed to the animal’s saliva or brain tissue, which could have spread the virus, Live Science reported.

In turn, all 13 people potentially exposed underwent rabies postexposure prophylaxis, which consists of multiple shots of the rabies vaccine, the scientific news outlet reported.

According to WATE-TV, the anteater was never on display at the Washington County zoo; therefore, the general public was never at risk of contracting the virus.

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