{"id":9306,"date":"2025-10-18T03:36:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/9306\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:36:54","slug":"60-day-rabies-alert-issued-in-polk-county-department-of-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/9306\/","title":{"rendered":"60-day rabies alert issued in Polk County: Department of Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

POLK CO., Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Health in Polk County issued a rabies alert in response to a confirmed case in the area.<\/p>\n

According to officials, a stray cat was captured in the South Lakeland area off South Carter Road and brought to Parkway Veterinary Emergency Clinic.<\/p>\n

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) said a veterinary technician was bitten while treating the animal, and the person who transported the animal sustained two scratches.<\/p>\n

Deputies said the cat\u2019s body was sent to a state laboratory in Tampa for testing, and results were returned to Polk County Animal Control on Oct. 15, confirming rabies.<\/p>\n

Health officials said they are monitoring rabies among wild animals in the area and urge all residents to be aware that rabies is currently present in the wild animal population.<\/p>\n

The rabies alert is for 60 days and includes the following boundaries in Polk County:<\/p>\n

Northern boundary: Polk Parkway
Southern boundary: W Carter Road\/E Carter Road
Eastern boundary: Lakeland Highlands Road
Western boundary: State Road 37<\/p>\n

Officials also provided a list of precautions residents should take to prevent rabies exposure on their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Concrete company responds after multiple drivers say repaving project damaged their cars<\/p>\n

Weeks after drivers started reaching out to Tampa Bay 28 about damage to their vehicles, we\u2019re finally hearing from the contractor behind the Tyrone Boulevard repaving project.<\/p>\n

Concrete company responds after multiple drivers say repaving project damaged their cars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLK CO., Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Health in Polk County issued a rabies alert in response…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,9256,1911,9255,9257,135,5910,3670,137,136,208],"class_list":["post-9306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-abc-action-news","tag-department-of-health","tag-polk-county","tag-rabies","tag-stray-cat","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}