Pat Shelton, age 11, of Joelton, Term., for the question

Can chickens get rabies?

Some animals are more prone to rabies than others., and some cannot get the dread disease at all. Chickens and other birds may be infected from the bite of, say, a rabid dog. Chances are, the bite would not cause the disease to develop. However, the bird might get a mild attack or a serious attack which could prove fatal. During the final stages of a serious attacks the bird would rush around like a mad doggy packing and perhaps clawing whate ver creature was in its path. But its bites would, not infect another animal.

The virus which causes rabies develops in the salavary glands of toothy warm blooded mammals. Saliva, of course, is the digestive juice arising in the mouth. Chickens have no teeth and do not chew their food. Their whole digestive system is different from that of the mammals. This, perhaps is why the rabies virus cannot develop to the infectious stage in the mouth of a bird.

So, if a chicken becomes rabid and pecks your you do not have to worry about getting the dread disease. But we have to be constantly alert about protecting our other animals especially our dogs. For rabies seems to be a dog's disease. In the wild state, it is also a deadly enemy of bats, wolves, skunks, raccoons foxes, ,jackals and badgers. All these animals are warm blooded, meat eating mammals. Cats can also get rabies and transmit it with a bite.

Of all our pets, the dog does the most wandering in the wild. Hs is the chief contact man between us and the creatures in the wild state. Hence, he is most likely to pick up rabies from a wild animal and bring the disease into the community.

When this happens, the health authorities clamp down with restrictions. Doggy and cats :mist be shut up and kept to themselves. They should also be inoculated.

Fortunately in most places, rabies is a rare disease. But we never know when it will strike. For this reason, sensible people take their pet dogs and cats to the animal doctor to get their shots. He will give them both infections to protest them from rabies and tell you when to bring them back for another shot. He will also give them injections to protect them from other animal diseases.

It is only fair to do this for our darling pets, for they cannot protect themselves from these animal diseases. What's more, the rabies injection works to protect us too. For human beings can get this disease from a rabid animal and, unless treated, the disease in man is also fatal. Summer is here and with it the long roving days in the woods. So, let’s gather up our furry pets and take them to have their anti rabies shots. It wont hurt them a bit and it may save them from a horrible death. The chickens, parrots and other birds do not have to have shots.