rabies and ectotherms

[C. Buranathai]

As far as I know,Rabies virus can infect only mammals(warm blood 
animals,such as dog,cat,bat,cattle,skunk,fox).The technical term for 
this kind of behavior is "restricted host" and rabies is also called 
"restricted tissue".That means rabies virus only resides in nerve and 
brain. After the virus multiply in brain it move to salivary glands. Therfore,infected mammal 
has virus in their saliva, that's why mammal mostly get rabies by being 
bitten and in very rare cases by inhalation of saliva droplet. I hope 
that I am answering your question.


On Sat, 11 Feb 1995 grenard at mail1.new-york.net wrote:

> 
> This question may be naive but is it possible for an ecotherm such as a
> snake or lizard or frog to become infected with the rabies virus and/or
> become a carrier of rabies as a result of being bitten (and surviving the 
> trauma) by an infected  mammal? If not, I would appreciate a plausible
> explanation for an indiviual who has asked this of me. Thank you.
> 
>