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.

Of the 61 red foxes counted in and around Nome between February and March 2023, nearly one quarter were positive.

Most likely foxes become infected from feeding on deceased birds. In the past month, HPAI has been detected in red foxes in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario in areas where the virus was also detected in wild birds.

This fox "was not scared of me" and it continued to repeat this motion as the person (Venessa Koonooka), watched for ~10 minutes.

Three foxes from three Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities have tested positive for rabies in recent weeks.

A red fox roams a popular recreation outlet in Anchorage, and gets quite close to people. Treat encounters with caution, as foxes can carry rabies and other diseases.

The head of Alaska’s Wildlife Disease and Health Surveillance Program confirms that the City of Nome has a higher than normal case count of rabies in the red fox population. Usually in winter, most of the cases come from Prudhoe Bay and Utqiagvik. This winter most of the cases are from Nome, as well as from Kivalina and other villages around Kotzebue.

Rabies has been identified by the State of Alaska as being endemic (regularly found) in the fox population in this area.

Arctic fox rabies is enzootic in populations of arctic and red fox populations along Alaska’s northern and western coasts. This means rabies is always present in these populations at some low level but periodically there can be outbreaks called epizootics (an outbreak in animal disease rather than an epidemic as is it is called when occurring in a human population). However, the winter of 2020-2021 ushered in a widespread outbreak with persistent and large focus in and around Nome.