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Rabies
In Area
Raccoons
By THERESA REYNOLDS
Rapi»ahannock %*•»*» Staff Writrr
The discovery' of four rabid raccoons in Warren County just a few miles from the Rappahannock County line adds a new concern to local worries about a rabies outbreak in this area.
The four diseased raccoons were captured during a 10day period in the 3,000 acre preserve near the National Park.
The preserve, familiar to all who travel Route 522 between Rappahannock County and Front Royal, is used as a breeding ground for exotic wolves, foxes, birds, and other animals for the National Zoological Park in Washington, D. C.
Department of Conservation workers, monitoring the raccoons for other purposes, had trapped the raccoons to attach radio transmitters to 45 of them. Researchers noticed that four of the animals were behaving unusually, making a lot of noise and constantly moving around in the trap.
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta makes a distinction between states where there is always some rabies present in the raccoon population and states where an occasional raccoon contracts the disease from an infected skunk or other animal.
Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina are the only states previously thought to have “enzootic” or everpresent raccoon rabies. The Virginia rabies cases, and some recently recorded in West Virginia may mean that the geographic range of the disease is extending dramatically.
The rabid raccoons were captured in late July, and the
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