Illegally Imported Puppy from Morocco Tests Positive for Rabies in Southern France

The suspicions are confirmed. "A case of rabies in a puppy in the Var was confirmed on January 5, 2024 by the National Reference Laboratory for Rabies in Nancy," the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement on its website, stating that the animal was illegally imported from Morocco. Introduced by plane to French soil on December 16, 2023, the puppy died thirteen days later, on December 29. Legal proceedings are underway for "illegal importation of animals," the Var Prefecture said.

"All persons exposed to the animal have been contacted by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Health Agency and taken care of by an anti-rabies center," the Ministry of Agriculture added. The puppy would have "bitten" an assistant at the veterinarian’s office, where its owners took it. She was taken care of by the anti-rabies center in the Var.

The Ministry of Agriculture reminds that rabies is "a systematically fatal disease once the symptoms appear, both in humans and animals," which is transmitted from the animal to the human by saliva: bite, scratch, licking on a lesioned skin or mucous membranes (eye, mouth). But rabies is not transmitted during petting the animal or between humans.