Can snakes catch rabies from a meal?

Factual Questions
1

I’m watching this show on Animal Planet about the top 10 deadly snakes. #8 was the Rattlesnake and there was footage of it eating a mouse it had killed.

So now I have to know. Since rabies occurs in the wild, some of the mice surely are infected. Does it pass to the snake? Do the digestive juices protect it barring a bite or scratch? Has it even been studied?

Thanks

2

Reptiles can’t get rabies, period. It is pretty much a mammal-only disease and at that I believe it is actually rather rarer among rodents compared to other groups ( though, yeah, you can get rabid rodents ).

  • Tamerlane
3
      • While it is possible for reptiles to transmit rabies from one mammal to the next under odd conditions, reptiles are not susceptible to the disease themselves. Rabies only infects mammals.
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