What’s causing bizarre-looking squirrels?
Description
For the past couple of years, folks in the U.S. and Canada have sporadically reported squirrels covered in bleeding sores, giving rise to the name “zombie squirrels.” But this isn’t science fiction — it’s a viral disease.
Squirrel fibroma virus is a type of poxvirus that mostly affects squirrels, but sometimes rabbits too. Its defining features are wart-like growths on the skin of the head or legs, which may become so large that they interfere with the animal’s ability to see and eat. The lesions may become secondarily infected, but they usually resolve on their own over time.
Squirrel fibroma virus is thought to be spread by mosquitoes and fleas but may be transmitted by direct contact with an infected animal as well. It has not been known to infect people.
United States
