Rabid bat found at Maryland Zoo

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Officials are warning anyone who came in contact with a baby bat while visiting the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore on Monday to contact local health officials after the bat tested positive for rabies. Zoo spokesman Grant Healey said officials discovered the bat near a walkway on Monday. State health officials later confirmed that the creature, which was not part of the zoo’s collection, had tested positive for the rabies virus.

“This is a good reminder that people should be very careful when encountering any type of wild animal, particularly one that appears sick or dead,” Karl Kranz, the zoo’s vice president for animal programs, said in a statement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of human rabies cases in the United States are contracted through contact with bats, though the overwhelming majority of the creatures are not rabid.

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