Can kangaroos develop rabies?

Question

Opposums, which are marsupials also, do not develop rabies even when they share habitat with infected raccoons. Is the natural resistance to rabies common to all marsupials?

Answer 1

I've never heard of anyone doing rabies testing on kangaroos, and you aren't going to find a wild rabid kangaroo since Australia is rabies free. As for opossums tough they aren't immune they are very resistant, the leading theory for that is that their body temperature is lower than most mammals and the virus cannot operate at that temperature. I've only ever read of 1 rabid possum bite on a human, that was a few years back out west (I think California) the person was treated so he didn't develop the virus but the opossum tested positive for rabies... resistant not immune...

Answer 2

As a previous answer stated, kangaroos are native to Australia which doesn't have the standard rabies virus. But...there is a similar disease here called Lyssavirus. As far as I know, only a few bats in Australia have ever tested positive for Lyssa. It is still a requirement when working with aussie bats to be innoculated against Lyssa. The innoculation is the same as for rabies. I would assume that any mammal could contract rabies if exposed. That is one of the reason that Australian laws against importation of animals are so stringent.

Answer 3

Opossums can develop rabies, but rarely do so. Different groups of mammals have different susceptibilities to the virus that causes rabies.

I know that other types of marsupial in South America have tested positive for antibodies to the rabies virus, so they do get rabies, but I'm not aware of any cases where rabies was transmitted to humans by marsupials, so perhaps they don't normally progress to that point.