A moose that was killed in Teller last week had been infected with rabies, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirmed.
Health and wildlife officials confirmed a dramatic rise in rabid foxes in Nome and the region, after a winter of increased fox attacks on dogs and people. According to an ADF&G press release, of 61 foxes that were dispatched in Nome and the area, 23 percent (or 14 foxes) tested positive for rabies. Of the 11 foxes that were found dead, or were killed by dogs or people because they behaved ‘rabid’, all tested positive.
Nome and the surrounding area, including St. Lawrence Island, is fighting rabies almost as hard as it is fighting COVID-19. Because of the high level of rabies infection Fish and Game requested assistance from the National Rabies Management Response Program. Their job is to manage a wildlife disease outbreak. Several technicians and a rabies biologist are in Nome reducing the number of foxes.
The community of Gambell fought a distemper outbreak among its dog population this spring and managed to squash the epidemic in its early onset. Distemper is a deadly disease that can afflict dogs and wildlife alike and also has been documented in the North Atlantic to jump from dogs to marine mammals like seals.
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