Why does an animal need to be put down before it can be tested for rabies?

Question

I am thinking about the two grizzly bears at our local zoo that had to be killed in the 90’s because one of them scratched a child who jumped into their caged area. They could then confirm that neither animal had rabies.

Why is there not a more novel way to test for rabies? And why can’t the human be tested for it?

In: 357

Answer 1

This all makes me understand better why Great Britain had a six month quarantine even on house pets since there is zero presence of rabies in Great Britain. There is now a workaround for a chipped animal and testing them before traveling but for a long time it was six months.