AUGUSTA — The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention urges Maine residents and visitors to take steps to prevent contact with bats to avoid possible exposure to rabies.

Bats are most active in Maine from July into early September, though bat exposures can happen at any time of year. The Maine CDC encourages people to be cautious around bats, keep a safe distance, and know what to do after exposure to a bat.

Bats play an important role in the environment but can also spread viruses such as rabies. Rabies can be fatal in humans, pets, and livestock. Timely treatment following a rabies exposure is effective in preventing the disease in humans. Human rabies cases are rare in the U.S., and Maine last reported a human rabies case in 1937. In 2023, bats made up 49% of the 721 animals tested by Maine CDC. Nine of the bats tested positive for rabies, according to a news release from Lindsay Hammes with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Rabies spreads when infected mammals bite, and in some cases scratch, other mammals. Contact with an infected animal’s brain or spinal cord can also spread the virus to humans, pets or livestock. The virus cannot spread in blood, urine, feces, skunk spray, or dried saliva. A rabid animal may show a variety of symptoms or no symptoms at all. Wherever possible, people should avoid contact with wildlife, including bats, or any animals they do not know.

For more information, visit the Maine CDC Rabies webpage at maine.gov, or call the Maine CDC disease reporting and consultation line at 800-821-5821.

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