Q: Does a commercial dishwasher kill the rabies virus? For instance - if I took my [rabid] dog to a restaurant and he ate off of one of the plates, would washing the plate kill the virus so that the next person eating off of that plate wouldn't get rabies?
A. Before I answer this, let me ask what restaurant allows dogs to eat off of their plates? Or better yet, who takes their dog to the restaurant and thinks: Oh yeah, it will be fine for Mr. Bojangles to lick my plate clean. Anyway, in the event that you are worrying that the last user of your salad plate was a rabid dog, rest assured that the dishwasher should do a great job of killing the virus. 1. It should wash the virus right away. 2. Its a virus - needs mammalian cells to replicate and survive. 3. I've include the diagram below to demonstrate that the rabies virus is enveloped (and you've probably always wondered what it looked like). Enveloped viruses don't hold up well to the environment - meaning heat, detergents, etc. I read a bunch of stuff, but in general everyone agrees that if the virus is outside of the animal for very long, it dies. 4. Pastuerization temperatures kill the virus (>160 degrees F), and commercial dishwashers are required to have a final rinse of 180 degrees F.
Rabies virus is found in saliva, so be careful whenever you kiss a rabid animal. You laugh, but plenty of people do, and plenty of people let rabid animals play with their pets. The only way to test an animal for rabies is to kill it and test its brain... so.... play it safe and stay away from all of those cute cats/dogs/raccoons/foxes/kittens that are stray. You'll feel a strong desire to save them all, but in the end it could be more trouble than its worth.
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