Liesje:I don't know about citizen dogs, but Ireland has an INSANE quarantine!
The incubation period for rabies is generally considered to be 2-weeks to 6-months for dogs (1-week to over a year for people).
You can avoid Ireland's 6-month quarantine now if you are traveling from these countries (includes U.S.) and have carefully followed a set of rules.
Among other things the rules have you basically serving the 6-month quarantine before you leave home. The sequence is
- microchip
- rabies shot
- successful blood test for rabies antibodies
- 6-month wait (verify no incubating rabies)
If there is a "break" in vaccinations, one must repeat the last two steps, but I haven't researched their definition of "break". I think most (if not all) members of the European Union are now following this same procedure.
According to California's Dept. of Health Services, a rabies incubation period of 19 years in people has been reported.
It takes some time (the "incubation period") before a person exposed to rabies develops symptoms. The incubation period for rabies can vary. It can be anywhere from a week to over a year. An incubation period as long as 19 years has been reported. However, it usually lasts about one to two months. The incubation period varies, depending on the amount of virus introduced into the body and the distance the virus has to travel from the site of exposure to the central nervous system (CNS). The closer the bite is to the CNS, the shorter the incubation period. Bites to the head and neck are usually associated with an incubation period of less than one month.