An adorable stray kitten has sparked a massive rabies scare after it was taken in by a Nebraska couple, who bit and scratched the animal before it died.
The black and white tuxedo kitten was rescued by Madeline and Rich Wahl in Omaha after a friend found him, with the Wahls naming the doomed cat Stanley.
Stanley weighed just two pounds, had stopped eating and was having seizures when the Wahls took him to the vet The Washington Post.
One of his pupils was also larger than the other.
The couple thought their new furry friend was reacting poorly to ringworm medications.
A five-week-old kitten named Stanley (pictured) tested positive for a rare form of rabies never before seen in Nebraska
The vet suspected nearly two dozen possible causes for Stanley’s illness, but considered rabies a remote possibility and was stunned to discover that the kitten had the disease.
Stanley died the day after his visit to the vet.
Urgent tests are now being carried out to see if he has infected any of the 10 people he is estimated to have bitten or scratched, as well as other animals he may have come into contact with.
If left unchecked, health officials estimate the disease could spread and affect seven million people in the central US.
“We haven’t had rabies in forever,” said Sharon Mix, the vet, who noticed when she saw that the kitten’s pupils were different sizes.
Genetic testing showed the kitten had a variant of rabies normally linked to raccoons east of Appalachia and never before seen in Nebraska.
Douglas County Health officials rushed to vaccinate 1,000 raccoons in the local area to prevent more infections.
Rabies is considered 100 percent fatal in humans if the disease is not treated before symptoms begin.
County Health Director Lindsay Huse said The Nebraska Examiner: ‘It’s just something that can snowball very quickly.
“The goal is to prevent this raccoon variant of rabies from becoming established here in our area. This would have a substantial impact if it were to happen and put many people at risk.”
If left unchecked, the CDC estimates the virus could spread within 24 miles per year.
Over five years, rabies could spread to South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, putting an estimated seven million Americans at risk.
Stanley had a variant of the cap normally linked to raccoons east of Appalachia, prompting a massive effort to vaccinate area wildlife
“We’ve never had a nine-alarm fire like this,” said Richard Chipman, coordinator of the national rabies program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Contact information from health officials traced 10 people, including the Wahls, their friend and veterinary staffers who were scratched or bitten by Stanley so they could receive four doses of rabies vaccine and one dose of human rabies immune globulin to neutralize the virus, a treatment that can cost maximum $8,000 per person.
A team of state and federal officials spent 10 days capturing and vaccinating animals in the area — 753 raccoons, 41 skunks, four feral cats and one red fox.
Officials also placed 18,000 vaccine packs in a five-mile radius to vaccinate wildlife they were unable to capture.
“As they chew it, they wash their mouth and tonsils with the vaccine, and that triggers the immune response,” Chipman said.
Since 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has air-dropped ketchup-sized food packages containing rabies vaccines in the eastern United States to suppress the deadly neurological virus in raccoons.
Authorities will find out early next year whether they have stopped the spread. The incubation period for rabies ranges from one week to three months and Stanley was discovered on September 26.
If he spreads the disease to other animals, they may not show symptoms until December.
Chief of the rabies epidemiology team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ryan Wallace said: ‘If we can test 500 animals (in total) over the coming months through this surveillance program and they are all negative, then there is unlikely to be any spread to local wildlife. We won’t know for sure until around February.’
Stanley was the first cat in 20 years to test positive for rabies in the area. Rabies is more common in bats.
Officials also deployed 18,000 vaccine packs in a five-mile radius to vaccinate wildlife they were unable to capture
If left unchecked, the CDC estimates the virus could spread within a radius of 24 miles per year. In five years, an estimated seven million Americans could be at risk
Symptoms of the disease in humans include fever, headache, excessive salivation, muscle spasms, paralysis and mental confusion.
There is no specific treatment for rabies, and once symptoms appear it is almost always fatal, but a vaccine can prevent infection.
People who are feared to have been exposed to rabies are given Rabies Post-Exposure Prolaxe, a vaccine and antibody treatment.
They will receive a dose of man-made antibodies against rabies to fight the infection once exposed, as well as four doses of a rabies vaccine over two weeks.
The vaccine contains a small protein from the surface of the rabies virus to prepare the immune system to fight the real virus if it becomes infected.