Dog owners in Europe are being urged to ensure their pets are vaccinated against rabies following the recent reemergence of the disease, which is usually fatal to humans if bitten by an infected animal.
Researchers at France’s National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) have found two strains of the rabies virus circulating in countries including Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.
Thought to have been largely eliminated in Europe, rabies began to resurface in Poland in 2021, according to ANSES.
In 2025, over 100 cases were identified in Romania.
The return of rabies has likely been facilitated by the disruption to vaccination efforts in Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion in early 2022.
“The resurgence of rabies in Europe illustrates the impact of armed conflicts on health and wildlife,” said Emmanuelle Robardet of ANSES, whose team worked with national veterinary bodies in Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Slovakia and Ukraine to conduct the research, which was published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Last year saw the death of a man in Romania following a rabies infection – the first such fatality in Europe since 2012.
In its most recent rabies update, published in October 2025, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that a man in France had also died a day after a rabies diagnosis and a week after being hospitalised.
“The overall risk of contracting rabies for residents or visitors in mainland France is currently considered very low,” the ECDC said at the time.
While the symptoms of late-stage rabies in dogs, such as aggression and drooling, are clear, at first infected pets can show less obvious signs such as restlessness and withdrawal from usual levels of activity.
Bats are another rabies carrier and should be considered a danger particularly if they try to nest in or near houses while appearing more approachable than usual, which can be a sign of infection. – dpa
