Two more rabid raccoons found in Suffolk County, health officials say
To prevent the spread of rabies in raccoons, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services is distributing oral rabies vaccine baits in the Babylon, Huntington, Smithtown and Islip Credit: Suffolk County Department of Hea
Two more rabies cases were found in Suffolk County in October, bringing the total number of known infections this year to 14 after a 15-year period when no infections had been found in the county, Suffolk health officials said.
Both of the new cases involved raccoons; one found in Wyandanch on Oct. 21 and the other in Lindenhurst on Oct. 24, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services announced on Friday. Neither animal came into contact with humans.
County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said the primary risk is that pets would be exposed to the disease. He urged owners to get pets vaccinated.
"That’s the most important thing you can do," he said. "Pets are more apt to encounter a rabid raccoon" than a human being.
The rabid animals found in 2025 included 13 raccoons and one feral cat. Pigott said raccoons were "the primary species" that spreads the virus because their size allowed them to survive the initial infection.
Each case has been in southwestern Suffolk. Eight were near Amityville, three in Deer Park, two in Lindenhurst and one in Wyandanch, according to county health officials.
Before this year, Suffolk County had not identified any ground animals with rabies since 2009.
Pigott said the disease likely spread east from New York City, where public health officials did not effectively vaccinate raccoons through a process called "baiting."
"The theory is that the city was not aggressively baiting, [which is when] you give these oral rabies baits out and the raccoons eat them," he said. "Eventually, enough of the raccoon population is immune so that it doesn’t spread."
Pigott said Suffolk County planted about 240,000 bait packets in Babylon, Huntington, Smithtown and Islip beginning in September. He said rabies cases were expected to begin dropping in 2026 as a result.
In the meantime, county health officials are asking residents to report any animals behaving unusually to police.
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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