Dead, rabid wolf winds up in Mat-Su Borough

PALMER — Mat-Su officials are warning folks to be on the lookout for other animals that may have been infected by rabies after the carcass of an infected wolf killed in the Chandalar Lakes area near the Brooks Range was disposed of in the Valley.

Animals in the Mat-Su area acting unusually should be reported to the Palmer Alaska Department of Fish and Game office at 746-6300, or via email at dfg.dwc.vet@alaska.gov to determine the necessary actions.

A department press release says that rabid animals “might be fearless in approaching people, attack inanimate moving objects or be unable to run or move normally.”

While there’s a risk of transmitting the virus through contact with wildlife, state officials say the greater risk is transmission to people through infected pets and other domesticated animals.

“People should have their pets vaccinated. Make sure that you do that,” state veterinarian Robert Gerlach said.

It’s actually a law in Alaska that cats, dogs and ferrets be vaccinated for rabies.

So what’s significant about this case? First of all, Chandalar Lakes is an area outside of where the state usually sees rabies. Gerlach said that arctic foxes along the state’s coastal and northern regions are the “reservoir” of the disease. To see a wolf with the disease that far inland raises lots of questions.

One possibility is it could have been there all along. The state doesn’t do a lot of testing on animals, Gerlach said. Up until two years ago, officials only tested when someone might have been exposed to the disease.

Over the last couple of years the state has run a program testing animals trappers brought in that weren’t suspected of having rabies. They found that 2 percent of foxes in the Bethel region had rabies.

“It’s just a point to say if you’re hunting or trapping out there you really should be careful,” Gerlach said.

The state recommends wearing gloves when skinning animals, washing wounds thoroughly with soap and water, avoiding cutting into the brain and spinal column as much as possible and washing knives with soap and water immediately after severing the head.

Another possibility as to where the rabies came from is that it might have spread inland from those foxes on the coast. Gerlach said as temperatures have increased lately, red foxes in the Interior have begun interacting more with coastal foxes.

“We’re concerned that maybe these areas will start to transfer it and move it into a wider range of the state,” Gerlach said.

To figure out if that’s happening officials need data. They’re asking anyone with animals trapped or hunted in the Chandalar Lakes area to bring the heads to Fish and Game. Heads need to have been frozen and samples can be taken without damaging the skulls.

As for how this particular case came to light, Gerlach said the wolf was shot for getting too close to the trapper. Then the trapper cut himself pretty bad when he was skinning out the wolf.

“He went to his doctor and his doctor said, ‘hey, we better test that wolf,’ and sure enough it came up positive,” Gerlach said.

So, should people be worried about rabies? Probably not.

“Overall, the risk for people is probably the same before we found this wolf other than that we’re going to have a new area to look for it,” he said.

The point of spreading the word about this case, Gerlach said, isn’t to raise alarm bells, but to solicit more data.

“The point is we found it in a new area and we really need to find out how it got down there,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.