I've had a run on questions about survival of rabies virus outside the body. The topic comes up periodically with respect to touching roadkill or veterinar. read more
Lifespan Outside of the Body Temperature and conditions may play a small part in varying the time frame, but the rabies virus cannot survive outside of a host body. Typically speaking, the rabies virus will be rendered inactive once outside of the host body (and host body material such as saliva) for a matter of seconds. read more
Fortunately, rabies is an enveloped virus, and it doesn’t like being outside of a mammal’s body. Data on rabies virus survival are pretty limited, since it’s not an easy thing to assess. To look at rabies virus survival, you have to grow the virus, expose it to different environmental conditions, then see if it’s still able to infect a mammal or a tissue culture. read more