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Review
. 2024 Oct 19;16(10):1635.
doi: 10.3390/v16101635.

Rabies in Cats-An Emerging Public Health Issue

Christine Fehlner-Gardiner  1 , Gyanendra Gongal  2 , Tenzin Tenzin  3 , Claude Sabeta  4 , Paola De Benedictis  5 , Silene Manrique Rocha  6 , Alexander Vargas  6 , Natalia Cediel-Becerra  7 , Luis Carlos Gomez  8 , Joanne Maki  9 , Charles E Rupprecht  10   11
Affiliations
Review

Rabies in Cats-An Emerging Public Health Issue

Christine Fehlner-Gardiner et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Human rabies cases today are predominantly associated with infection from rabid domestic dogs. Unlike dogs, a common global reservoir species that perpetuates rabies viruses (RABV) within their populations, domestic cats are much less frequently reported or vaccinated. Epidemiologically, cats are important vectors of lyssaviruses but are not viral reservoirs. Typically, cats are incidental hosts only, infected with the predominant lyssavirus in their geographic locale. Human cases associated with rabid cats have occurred in Africa, Asia, Europe and throughout the Americas. As adept, solitary hunters, wild and domestic felids are at risk of lyssavirus infection based upon interactions with infected prey, such as bats, or from transmission by other mesocarnivores, such as rabid dogs, foxes, jackals, raccoons, and skunks. Current veterinary vaccines provide safe and effective immunity in cats against phylogroup I lyssaviruses, such as RABV, but not against divergent lyssaviruses in phylogroups II-IV. With the focus upon the global elimination of canine rabies, the emergence of rabies in cats represents a concerning trend. Clearly, education about the occurrence of rabies in cats needs to be improved, as well as the routine vaccination of cats to reduce the associated risks to public health, agriculture, and conservation biology from a One Health perspective.

Keywords: One Health; cat; emerging infectious disease; lyssavirus; rabies; zoonosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author Joanne Maki was employed by the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. CER serves as a global consultant for LYSSA LLC. Other authors declare no conflicts of interest. No funders had a role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Total number of rabies cases in cats in Southeast and South Asia, reported by year and country to WOAH-WAHIS (January 2005 to June 2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total number of rabies cases in cats in the Middle East and Central Asia, reported by year and country to WOAH-WAHIS (January 2005 to June 2022).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cats submitted for rabies testing and percent positive samples in Canada, 1985–2022. Blue bars = number of samples submitted for testing; orange dots and lines = percentage of samples that tested positive for rabies. (source: Canadian Food Inspection Agency, unpublished data).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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