Nearly 300 people exposed to goats with rabies at mobile petting zoo

By Jen Christensen, CNN

(CNN) — Local health departments in North Carolina have evaluated hundreds of people for rabies after they interacted with baby goats that were part of a mobile petting zoo, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

As of Wednesday, 284 people have been evaluated by local health departments, while others have consulted with a healthcare provider directly to assess their potential rabies risk.

The goats were owned by Farm Adventures, based in Harmony, North Carolina. Between July 28 and August 27, local officials said in a statement, the farm took the goats throughout the state and visited at least 10 locations, including a Masonic picnic, assisted living centers and a back-to-school bash, as well as private events.

The state health department recommended post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for 213 of the people who were evaluated.

If started promptly after exposure, PEP is considered 100% effective at preventing a fatal rabies infection.

About 100,000 people are treated with PEP each year in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It typically starts with wound care if there was a bite or scratch — rabies can also spread through contact with an animal’s saliva — followed by human rabies immunoglobulin to help fight a potential infection until vaccines take effect. Four or five vaccine doses are given, based on the patient’s weight.

In the past, people exposed to rabies received up to 30 painful vaccine shots in the stomach. Today, adults can get the shots in the shoulder muscle, while children can get them in the thigh over the course of 14 days. Side effects are generally mild and may include a sore arm, a headache and an upset stomach.

Without prompt treatment, rabies is typically fatal. Symptoms, which can take up to two months to develop, may include headache, nausea and sore throat before progressing to hallucinations, delusions, disorientation, paralysis and coma.

At Jurney’s Assisted Living Home in Statesville, Executive Director Chrissy Stein-Martin said eight residents are undergoing treatment after interacting with the goats. None refused PEP, she said, and the hospital and health departments have been “great to work with.”

“They’ve been asking good questions, seeing what they can do to help. In fact, the health department’s coming here to do all the follow-up vaccines so we don’t have to take the residents out. And the families have been very supportive,” she said.

Going forward, Stein-Martin said, the facility will still welcome dog visitors but will no longer host farm animals. Alpacas from a local farm have regularly visited the facility, but when she learned that North Carolina requires rabies vaccines for only cats, dogs and ferrets — not farm animals, including goats – she decided “there’s no reason to put everyone at risk.”

Farm Adventures said in a statement that its “4 precious baby goats” that may have exposed people to rabies have been euthanized. Tests detected the virus in three of the goats. The farm said it is monitoring its other animals, but none has become sick.

The baby goats had been kept in a separate pen because they were too young to get vaccinated, according to the farm’s owner, Misty Love, who told CNN on Saturday that a wild skunk had gotten into the baby goats’ pen July 29. The farm shot and burned the skunk.

None of the goats appeared to have been bitten, but one died August 19, and another fell ill the next day and had to be euthanized.

North Carolina’s health department said it is “well prepared to respond to rabies.” About 300 animals test positive for rabies in the state every year; most of them wild.

In 2025, more than 4,000 animals were tested for rabies in North Carolina, and only about 6% were positive for the virus, the health department said.

As of August 28, more than 320 people in North Carolina had received PEP, the health department said. That figure covers all rabies exposures in the state, not just people exposed to the infected goats.

Since rabies was confirmed in the goats, state and local health authorities and the CDC have coordinated with the farm and local authorities to determine who was exposed and who may need treatment.

The state health department said it has been in regular contact with the CDC, and that agency said Monday that it supplied information and tools to support rabies risk assessments.

The CDC’s latest rabies exposure surveillance report, released Monday, analyzed cases from 2024 and reported that four people died of rabies that year. Two were exposed to bats and did not receive treatment. Another case involved international travel. There was no information about the fourth case.

The state health department said North Carolina has an adequate supply of prophylaxis and would provide it to anyone who needs it.

The Mecklenburg County Public Health Department, which had one private event with exposure to the goats, declined to share details about the event or those exposed. Anyone with concerns is urged to contact the department.

At Jurney’s, Stein-Martin said, residents have “not been stressed at all” about the experience. Instead, they’ve been making light of it – “maybe even too light,” making goat sounds at each other and joking about not licking people.

She said levity is important in a potentially scary situation. In fact, Stein-Martin, who writes psychological thrillers in her spare time, said residents keep encouraging her to write a new book about a rabies scare in an assisted living community.

“Unexpectedly, I now feel like I’m 100% qualified to do that,” she said.

CNN’s Ray Sanchez and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.

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