Despite Midcoast residents’ recent run-ins with rabid animals, confirmed rabies cases are down dramatically compared to last year.

So far, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 35 rabies cases in Maine, down from 51 cases to this point in 2023.

“Rabies tends to be cyclical,” Department of Health and Human Services press secretary Lindsay Hammes wrote in an email to The Times Record. “So we have years where we see a lot of cases followed by years when we see fewer. This appears to be due to a number of factors rather than one thing we can point to definitively.”

So far in 2024, there have been five confirmed rabies cases in Sagadahoc County, including three foxes, one raccoon and one skunk. Bath police reported several run-ins with rabid foxes earlier this summer, which were believed to be part of the same family.

On Aug. 15, Lisbon Falls resident Jennifer Conant saw a possible rabid skunk outside her apartment on Booker Street in the early morning. Conant woke up to a pungent smell coming from outside her window. She went outside to see the skunk attacking the air and behaving aggressively, stomping and spraying around in circles.

When the officer arrived, they saw a large bite mark on the skunk’s hind leg. After the wildlife control agent for the warden service of Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was called in, regional biologist Keel Kempler said the skunk was euthanized on-site.

That skunk is presumed to have rabies but was never tested because it didn’t come into direct contact with any humans or pets.

“Rabies testing is necessarily fatal. However, the Maine CDC is not aware of and has not recommended any depopulation response for animal rabies across the state in 2024,” Hammes said.

Between January and May 2023, the Maine CDC confirmed 30 rabies cases in raccoons, skunks, bats, a fox, and a woodchuck. By the end of 2023, there were 75 reported rabies cases.

Rabies, found in the saliva of infected animals, is spread through bites or scratches, since animals routinely lick their paws. Rabies is most commonly found in raccoons, foxes, skunks, bats and woodchucks in Maine.

Signs of a rabid animal include mobility problems, excessive drooling or foaming at the mouth, and abnormal levels of aggression.