**5. Rabies in cattle**

Cattle, like other warm-blooded animals, are susceptible to rabies infection. The incidence of rabies in cattle is variable according to the management system.

### **5.1 Epidemiology**

The incidence of rabies in cattle is continuously reported worldwide. In India and Bangladesh, cattle were found to be the most affected domestic animals with rabies [2]. Cattle were the first most likely livestock tested positive for rabies in Mongolia [45]. Rabies was considered one of the most common infectious diseases affecting cattle and is most reported in cattle in Bhutan [39]. In Sri Lanka, cattle were the second most clinically diagnosed species with rabies during 2005–2014 [6]. In China, during 2004–2018, results of a rabies survey showed that cattle were the second most (12.5%) affected species according to rabies laboratory-confirmed cases [46]. In India, rabies' prevalence was 61.4% in cattle and buffalo [47]. In Nepal, cattle and buffalo appeared to be the most affected species even than dogs [48]. According to Bárcenas-Reyes et al. (2019), there is an increase in rabies cases in humans and cattle in Latin America and the Caribbean. Taghreed and Asmaa [49] reviewed some published rabies reports in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, and Yemen. Dogs were the main rabies reservoir, and the disease was found in camels, foxes, cattle, sheep, and goats. Dogs, cattle, and humans are the most common hosts for rabies in Ethiopia. Cattle come second to dogs [24]. Out of 48 animal deaths of rabies, cattle (28) were more affected than other animal species [25]. The same picture was reported in Nigeria [29]. In Kenya, cattle were found to be the second most rabies-affected species.

Within samples submitted for rabies diagnosis, those of cattle, goats, sheep, and horses showed a higher percentage of positivity than dog and cat ones [26]. In Namibia, cattle rabies cases are second to dogs during 2011–2017 [50], also in Uganda during 2011–2013 [16]. In South Africa, rabies has been mainly diagnosed in dogs (52%), followed by (34%)

#### *Rabies Virus Infection in Livestock DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98228*

cattle [51]. In a review about rabies in Morocco, most of the reviewed reports showed that cattle were found to be the second most affected animal after dogs [27, 52].

In Euro-Asia and Europe, until 2001, cattle were the first rabies affected species in the Russian Federation, second in Belarus [35], the first one in Lithuania, the second one in Latvia, and the third after dogs and cats in Estonia [36]. In Guatemala, 154 cattle rabies due to vampire bat bites were reported (reviewed by [34]). In the United States, Canada, and Mexico, few cases were reported in cattle [53]. The same situation showing a very few reported rabies cases in cattle in Ukraine during 2012–2016 was reported [37].

#### **5.2 Clinical signs**

The paralytic form of rabies is the main sign in cattle, but some animals also show depression and excitation [54]. Foaming, bellowing, hitting and biting any object, hazing at humans and other cows were reported in Sierra Leone [30]. In Peru, abortive rabies cases were reported, rabies virus neutralizing antibodies were detected in 11% of cattle in areas of vampire bats, no deaths were observed in those animals within two years [55]. The observed clinical signs of rabies in cattle in two localities in India and Bangladesh were aggression, mania, profuse salivation, frenzy, and restlessness [2].

#### **5.3 Transmission**

Rabies virus is transmitted mainly through bites from rabid dogs, which accounts for over 90% of confirmed rabies cases [29]. However, according to Acha [56], rabies affecting bovines is primarily a problem of the southern area of the Hemisphere where vampire bats transmit it. In Africa, domestic dogs are the essential reservoir and transmitter of rabies to humans and other domestic animals [22, 57]. However, according to Warrell [58], jackals are the reservoir species in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and bat-eared foxes in northern South Africa.

Rabies is transmitted to cattle mainly by the bite of rabid dogs in Bhutan [39]. In China, dogs are the primary transmitters, while in border areas, wild foxes are [46]; camels and wild foxes were reported to transmit rabies to cattle [8]. In Saudi Arabia, the main reservoirs of rabies are reported to be foxes and wild dogs [15].

In Europe, the increase in rabies cases in domestic animals like cattle, sheep, horses, cats, and dogs is associated with increased disease incidence in red foxes. Wild animals are reported as a cause for more than 90% of the animal rabies cases in the U.S. and Canada in 2010 [59]. Foxes are the main affected animals and the source of rabies infection in Ukraine [37]. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the main transmitter of rabies is the blood-sucking bat [33, 54]. In Colombia, the major transmitters, reservoirs, and vectors of the rabies are insectivorous, frugivorous and hematophagous bats; Vampire bat, which appeared as the main rabies reservoir from Mexico to South America [60].

Cattle can transmit rabies to humans as well as other animals. In Iran, a case of human rabies due to contact with the saliva of rabid cattle was reported [10].
