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Volume 31, Number 12—December 2025
Research Letter
Wild and Domestic Animal Exposure among Deceased Persons Referred for Organ Procurement, United States
, Raymond Lynch, Brianna Doby, Sarah Laskey, Pallavi Annambhotla, Ryan M. Wallace, Sarah C. Bonaparte, Lauri A. Hicks, Sridhar V. Basavaraju, and Ian Kracalik
Table
Exposures to wild and domestic mammals (bites or scratches) among persons referred for organ procurement from seven organ procurement organizations, United States, 2024*
| Exposure type | No. (%) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Persons ruled in for organ procurement, n = 2,872 | Persons ruled out for organ procurement, n = 1,683 | |
| Mammal† | 151 (5.3) | 90 (5.3) |
| Domestic‡ | 149 (5.2) | 88 (5.2) |
| Cat | 71 (2.5) | 46 (2.7) |
| Dog | 53 (1.8) | 48 (2.9) |
| Livestock | 1 (0.03) | 2 (0.1) |
| Ferret | 0 | 1 (0.06) |
| Rabbit | 2 (0.07) | 0 |
| Sugar glider§ | 1 (0.03) | 0 |
| Pet or NOS | 1 (0.03) | 1 (0.06) |
| Wild‡ | 2 (0.07) | 2 (0.1) |
| Rat | 2 (0.07) | 0 |
| Porcupine | 0 | 1 (0.06) |
| Raccoon | 0 | 1 (0.06) |
| Bat | 0 | 0 |
*NOS, not otherwise specified. †Respondents could report >1 animal exposure for each person referred for organ donation. ‡The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–maintained National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System collected 2024 animal rabies testing data from state and territorial public health departments and US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services. Data from this system showed that <1.5% of domestic animals submitted for testing have rabies. §This animal (Petaurus breviceps) is a small, nocturnal, arboreal gliding possum that is kept as an exotic pet.