The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment announced recently that two more skunks near Fort Collins have tested positive for rabies. This makes five rabid skunks that have been found close to Fort Collins neighborhoods in the past two weeks.

The fourth skunk was chased from a poultry enclosure of a private home near Taft Hill and Vine Drive and found dead the next morning. The fifth skunk was seen out in daylight and walking in circles in a neighborhood near Horsetooth and Taft Hill Roads.

The five skunks are the first of what will likely be numerous skunks, and possibly other animals, infected with skunk variants of rabies that first arrived in Colorado in 2007.Until recently, bats had been the main carrier of rabies in Colorado.

All Larimer County residents are urgently advised to keep their pets, horses and livestock vaccinated and up-to-date, and to avoid skunks that are out in daylight or are behaving strangely.

The Health Department has posted a map that shows where skunks and bats that have tested positive for rabies have been found since early May.

The map is at http://larimer.org/maps/rabies.cfm and will be updated as soon as possible after positive confirmations are made.

If you see a skunk or bat that’s behaving strangely, keep your distance and call the Larimer Humane Society’s animal control number at 226-3647, Ext. 7.

The Health Department strongly urges Larimer County residents to vaccinate dogs, cats, ferrets, and horses against rabies as recommended by your veterinarian and making sure they are up-to-date on their shots.

Talk to your veterinarian about vaccinating other mammalian livestock. Chickens and other birds are not susceptible to rabies.

For more information on rabies, visit http://larimer.org/health or http://www.cdc.gov/rabies.