Rabies testing and surveillance program

Overview

The rabies testing and surveillance program is a partnership between the Alberta government, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and several rural municipalities.

The program coordinates the testing of animal samples:

• in response to human or domestic animal exposure
• when a wild or domestic animal dies or is euthanized with signs suggestive of rabies

To find out what to do if a human or a domestic animal may have been exposed to rabies, if you see a bat in your home, or if you have observed potentially rabid wildlife, see If you suspect rabies.

Responsive testing

Alberta Rabies Program

Phone: 1-844-427-6847
Email: [email protected]

Agriculture and Irrigation operates the Rabies Program. Calls are primarily received from veterinary clinics, wildlife personnel, members of the public and public health practitioners including Indigenous Services Canada.

Calls to the Rabies Line during regular business hours are answered by Registered Veterinary Technologists who work with Alberta’s Public Health Veterinarian. Together they provide information and advice on rabies in Alberta, most commonly with respect to potential human or domestic animal exposures.

Testing

Agriculture and Irrigation staff coordinate sample submission when it is necessary to test animals for rabies. Testing may be undertaken when the results are necessary to inform the management of an exposed human or domestic animal, or when a wild or domestic animal displays clinical signs compatible with rabies. This testing data provides a source of passive surveillance for the presence of rabies in Alberta.

Depending on location and staff availability, rabies program staff may collect and ship animal specimens or may request the assistance of a local veterinary clinic. Veterinary clinics are provided with submission forms as well as packaging and shipping information and are compensated for their assistance.

Rabies samples are tested at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) National Center for Animal Diseases outside Lethbridge, Alberta.

Surveillance in striped skunks

Presently, only bat rabies virus variants are endemic in Alberta. However, skunk rabies variants are present in Saskatchewan and Montana. For this reason, a skunk trapping and testing program was maintained in Alberta from 1970 through 2022, directed by the Central Rabies Control Committee. Each year, rural municipalities along the eastern and southern borders of the province worked with field technicians to sample skunk populations in their jurisdiction. Trapped skunks were delivered to Agriculture and Irrigation for preparation and submission to the CFIA laboratory.

Over time, the distribution of skunk rabies in Saskatchewan and Montana has changed and there have been no detections within 200 km of the Alberta border in at least 10 years. Therefore, active surveillance in striped skunks through random trapping was suspended effective in 2023. The program now focuses on rabies testing of skunks that have been observed with neurological or other signs suggestive of rabies. This approach, termed passive surveillance, is a more efficient means of detecting rare events as compared to a random sample of mostly healthy animals. Relying on passive surveillance is appropriate given the current level of risk. Rabies detections in Saskatchewan and Montana continue to be monitored to detect changes in risk.

If a positive skunk is found, which last occurred in 1994, steps are taken to reduce the skunk population in the immediate area and thereby reduce the potential for the virus to spread. Animals removed from the population are tested for rabies virus and the response area is expanded if additional cases are detected.

Figure 1. Annual rabies positives in Alberta, 1952 to 2025

Data table of confirmed rabies detections in animals in Alberta 1927 to 2025

Figure notes:

• Wildlife includes primarily coyote and fox.
• Non-bat species positives since 2000:
  • 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2018 one case each in cats (confirmed/presumed bat rabies virus variants)
  • 2013 one puppy imported from Nunavut while incubating rabies (arctic fox virus variant)
  • Alberta’s last case of rabies in a human was in 2007 (bat rabies virus variant)

Table 1. Alberta responsive samples for rabies testing 2022 to 2025

Figure 2. Rabies Program cases and samples submitted, 2023 to 2025*