The Ohio Department of Health and U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services have confirmed that three Lake County skunks have recently tested positive for rabies, the Lake County General Health District announced.
A total of three dogs were potentially exposed to the rabid skunks, though they were all current on their rabies vaccines. However, the dogs will undergo a 45-day quarantine for observation.
These skunks — found in Painesville, Mentor-on-the-Lake, and Mentor — were collected and tested between Sept. 28 and Oct. 3. A total of five skunks have been found with rabies in the county this year.
Like other rabid skunks in the past, these skunks are believed to have been infected with the raccoon strain of rabies and is part of the wider raccoon rabies epidemic in the county since 2004.
With the addition of these three skunks, 10 animals with the raccoon strain of rabies have been found this year in Northeast Ohio, the 18th since 2008 and the 141st since the outbreak began in 2004.
Additional rabid raccoons in 2011 have been found in Ashtabula (three), Mahoning (one) and Trumbull (one) counties, all near the Pennsylvania border.
Lake County has not had as many total animals with the raccoon strain of rabies since 2008 when there were four positive raccoons and three positive skunks.
The county also has not had this many positive skunks since 2007 when nine were found. In 2011, almost 7 percent (five out of 72) of all Lake County skunks tested have been found to be rabid.
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