Rabid seals are attacking people in South Africa

Rabid seals in South Africa are attacking people in the first known major outbreak of the disease among marine maMMAls. 

Eleven seals have so far tested positive for rabies in Cape Town. The animals are usually playful toward humans, but the outbreak is leading seals to act strangely and aggressively, alarming surfers and beachgoers, experts say.

Rabies is a deadly viral disease primarily transmitted through saliva that affects the central nervous system. Symptoms include fever, pain and tingling, pricking or burning sensations at the wound site, according to the World Health Organization. Unless medical attention is given immediately after exposure, the virus spreads to the central nervous system and leads to fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can take anywhere between a week and two years to appear, but they usually occur one to three months after exposure. 

The last recorded case of a seal contracting the disease was in 1980 in Norway's Svalbard islands, The Guardian reported July 11. The new upsurge in cases is thought to be the world's first significant outbreak of rabies in marine mammals, but it's unclear how the disease entered the seal population.

South African fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) began behaving strangely a few years ago, Gregg Oelofse, the coastal manager for the City of Cape Town, told The Guardian. A spike in reported seal attacks in late 2021 suggested the animals were acting more aggressively than usual toward humans, he said.

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Together with scientists and animal welfare experts, Oelofse and his team captured and tested a few Animals through 2022 to determine the cause of this sudden aggression. But given there was only one previous known case of rabies in seals, the team did not test for the disease, so they were left stumped.