The CDC issued a national health advisory on September 30, 2026, citing local increases in human rabies exposures amid unusual animal outbreaks, including rabid beavers in Maryland, a goat cluster in North Carolina, surges in Idaho and Alabama, and a record year for rabid bats in California. The agency's rabies team has lost about 30 percent of staff and can no longer advise state officials after hours. Rabies-related calls rose about 17 percent over last summer, with shots up 33 percent and immunoglobulin up 76 percent. The USDA is dropping about 600,000 vaccine baits over North Carolina this month to hold raccoon rabies west of the Appalachians. No human rabies cases have been confirmed in the U.S. this year.