Because of vaccination of pets and other animals in the United States, as well as a robust surveillance system to find rabid animals and control the spread of the disease, it has been years since a resident of the United States contracted rabies domestically.
A quick, 5-minute video explains how rabies affects an infected person.
Read how news got to America that Louis Pasteur had developed the rabies vaccine in France back in 1885.
New vaccines against diseases that affect farm animals like swine and cows are always being developed. Those animals, along with pets and other domesticated animals, benefit from vaccines for protection against diseases.