I hope this is a purely academic question not relating in any way to a real-life situation.
If so, the answer is something like: animals with rabies to a contagious degree are not too darn likely to be breeding another animal in the first place. I did pretty extensive primary-journal-source research for a magazine article on rabies a year or two ago and I am confident that if there were any recorded instances of rabies being transmitted through a mating encounter, I would have run across mention of it, and I did not. Although, if (very-unlikely though it is) an animal in the early stages of contagious rabies *did* breed another animal, bear in mind that there could be normal conventional transmission via scratches, saliva, that sort of thing, animals' mating habits being what they sometimes are
I do not offhand recall whether there are any recorded cases of a lactating mother passing rabies to her offspring through milk (and am too lazy to look
) but I sort of have it rattling around in my head that it can occur?
If OTOH this question means "my dog just got loose and got humped by another dog that was behaving awwwwffffullyyy oddly and I worry he might have had rabies", then please do something about it -- just the *encounter* is the issue, breeding aside. See if the dog can be tracked down and examined or quarantined or whatever; quarantine your own dog; if either party starts acting sick, see a vet and/or talk to a public health person. Rabies is NOT something to fool around with, esp. if your dog (or whatever animal) is unvaccinated and has a legitimate chance of contracting rabies and passing it on. While they do not normally become contagious til first symptoms appear, first symptoms are usually vague and not too alarming and people often *do* get into trouble before the affected animal becomes so sick that the situation is obvious.
(e.t.a. - it's not aversion to water as such, it's that as clinical rabies progresses the muscles become paralyzed and the animal loses the ability to swallow, thus cannot drink. But they do not die of dehydration generally, they die of the damage that the virus does to the central nervous system etc)
Good luck, have fun, use common sense,
Pat
If so, the answer is something like: animals with rabies to a contagious degree are not too darn likely to be breeding another animal in the first place. I did pretty extensive primary-journal-source research for a magazine article on rabies a year or two ago and I am confident that if there were any recorded instances of rabies being transmitted through a mating encounter, I would have run across mention of it, and I did not. Although, if (very-unlikely though it is) an animal in the early stages of contagious rabies *did* breed another animal, bear in mind that there could be normal conventional transmission via scratches, saliva, that sort of thing, animals' mating habits being what they sometimes are
If OTOH this question means "my dog just got loose and got humped by another dog that was behaving awwwwffffullyyy oddly and I worry he might have had rabies", then please do something about it -- just the *encounter* is the issue, breeding aside. See if the dog can be tracked down and examined or quarantined or whatever; quarantine your own dog; if either party starts acting sick, see a vet and/or talk to a public health person. Rabies is NOT something to fool around with, esp. if your dog (or whatever animal) is unvaccinated and has a legitimate chance of contracting rabies and passing it on. While they do not normally become contagious til first symptoms appear, first symptoms are usually vague and not too alarming and people often *do* get into trouble before the affected animal becomes so sick that the situation is obvious.
(e.t.a. - it's not aversion to water as such, it's that as clinical rabies progresses the muscles become paralyzed and the animal loses the ability to swallow, thus cannot drink. But they do not die of dehydration generally, they die of the damage that the virus does to the central nervous system etc)
Good luck, have fun, use common sense,
Pat
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