Geographic and seasonal distribution of rabies in skunks, foxes and bats in Texas.

Abstract

The geographic and seasonal distributions of the pathobiocenoses formed by rabies virus, the biotic provinces of Texas, and skunks, foxes and bats were described using synoptic mapping and enumeration by calendar month. Autocorrelation functions with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the skunk pathobiocenose for lag periods up to 36 mo in length. The geographic distributions were fundamentally different, but all overlapped. The skunk and fox pathobiocenoses were associated with provincial ecotones. The distribution of the bat pathobiocenose was urban. The nature of the autocorrelation functions for the skunk pathobiocenose indicated that this disease association may be spreading throughout the state from an epicenter in the Texan biotic province.