"Going crazy" after eating dog meat hot pot? Should I eat dog meat? How is it related to rabies?

　 Debunking:

　　

　　Every winter, people start to enjoy hot pot, and rumors of dog meat often come back, so what is the relationship between rabies and eating dog meat?

　　Rabies virus can be killed by high temperatures

　　How exactly is rabies infected? First of all, there is a history of exposure to rabies virus, most often by animals suspected of having rabies bitten, and a few due to scratches, or wounds, mucous membranes being licked. The rabies virus then has the potential to replicate through the local muscle tissue of the wound, then enter the peripheral nervous system, and eventually the virus reaches the brain and becomes ill.

　　According to domestic and foreign literature, no cases of rabies infection by eating cooked dog meat have been found. This is related to the characteristics of the rabies virus, because the rabies virus is not tolerant to high temperatures, and the virus loses its infectivity after 2 minutes at 100 °C or 30-60 minutes at 56 °C.

　　Contracting rabies is not learning to bark

　　Rabies can present clinically as manic (approximately two-thirds of cases) or paralyzed. Dog-transmitted rabies generally presents as a manic type. The patient's outstanding manifestations are extreme fear, water phobia, wind fear, episodic pharyngeal muscle spasm, dyspnea, difficulty urinating and defecation, sweating and salivating, etc., extreme pain, and the "crazy" simple mental abnormality is completely different, nor is it learning dog barking. Once rabies is onset, the entire natural course of the disease usually does not exceed 5 days, and soon dies of pharyngeal muscle spasm and suffocation or respiratory failure. "Crazy" can survive for a long time.

　　Dog meat is still not eaten

　　First of all, according to the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China (revised in 2015), "it is forbidden to produce and trade meat that has not been quarantined according to regulations or has failed quarantine, or meat products that have not been inspected or have failed inspection". It is understood that China has not yet issued dog slaughter quarantine procedures, so the dog meat on the market belongs to the illegal meat source that has not been inspected and quarantined.

　　The second is to take into account the fact that the dog meat is not cooked. Although eating cooked dog meat does not cause rabies, if you eat uncooked dog meat, and it happens to be the meat of a mad dog, then there may be a risk. Because the mad dog's saliva or brain tissue contaminates the dog meat and is not cooked, the virus may be infected before it is killed.

　　Third, in the process of dog meat processing, if the skin is accidentally punctured by the bones of the diseased dog, there is also a risk of infection. If the dog dies of rabies, the dog's bones may contain saliva from the rabies virus, and it may also contain viruses from brain tissue, which are risky or even high-risk.

　　Therefore, I still advise all foodies, dog meat or do not eat as well

　　Rumor dispelling expert: Huang Guihua, chief physician of Guangzhou Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention

　　Review expert: Wang Chuanlin, deputy chief physician of the emergency department of Peking University People's Hospital