Friendship at a safe distance: how dangerous park squirrels and how not to get infected with rabies

An attempt to take a furry animal on your hands can turn not only scratches, but also severe infections. The danger of park squirrels is told in the final video release of Evening Minsk by the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency Vladislava Titovets.

Evening Minsk: mad squirrels and autumn fairs. Topical topics from 14 to 20 September

Some perceive the park squirrel as a domestic furry hamster: they feed nuts, take them in their hands, try to pet. However, such actions can cost lives. After all, proteins, like all warm-blooded animals, can be carriers of rabies.

The most obvious route of infection is a bite when saliva enters the wound directly. You can also become infected through scratches and when the biological fluids of the animal enter the mucous membranes of a person.

The natural reaction of an animal to a human attempt to make contact is to flee. And this is a good sign, because the main symptom of rabies is the absence of fear of a person. If you still want to treat a squirrel with a delicacy, you can put nuts next to a tree.

- In Minsk this year, we have not registered cases of rabies infection. Squirrels, of course, bit, scratched people, their saliva got into the blood of the victims. However, the victims promptly appealed to medical institutions, and the timely course of anti-rabies vaccinations did not lead to infection, said Olga Utkina, an epidemiologist, head of the department of especially dangerous infections with a sanitary quarantine point of the epidemiology department of the Minsk City Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology.

In case of careless contact with an animal, 6 injections are given. However, it is important to have time before the manifestation of clinical signs. Then the chance that a terrible outcome can be avoided is higher.

However, proteins can be infected not only with rabies. Another disease is tularemia. To develop a severe infection, only 10 bacteria are enough to enter the body. In the most common currents, the disease resembles sepsis: a person has a rash, pneumonia and confusion.

In order not to put yourself at risk, you need to be friends with the animal world at a safe distance. A good option is a zoo.

- All proteins, when they come to us, undergo an initial examination by a veterinarian, said Ekaterina Yakhnitskaya, a junior researcher at the Minsk Zoo. - The condition of the skin, eyes, limbs is evaluated. There is also a mandatory quarantine and, if any problems are detected, the animal is assigned appropriate laboratory tests and treatment.

Feeding animals in the zoo is prohibited for several reasons. First, the behavior of the animal is impossible to predict, and if you extend your hand into a cage with a squirrel, it can get angry and bite. Secondly, a special diet is made for animals. Veterinarians calculate the amount of food and determine the feeding regimen. Food brought by visitors can lead to obesity and digestive problems, and sometimes even death.