Key points: - In France, rabies is a notifiable disease (DO) in humans and a disease considered contagious in all animal species (MRC). - The National Reference Center for Rabies (CNRR) collects and analyzes data on human rabies and its prevention, which is submitted to it by the Rabies Control Centers (CAR), and performs laboratory diagnosis of rabies in humans and in animals suspected of causing human infection. - From 2001 to 2003, the number of rabies treatments continued to decline. This decline is slower than that of positive animals due to the residual significance of high-risk contacts in France with unknown or missing animals and due to the increase in the number of people infected abroad in areas where rabies is enzootic. - One case of human rabies occurred in 2003 in a child infected in Gabon; two cases of canine rabies were imported from Morocco. - Rabies is therefore primarily an imported zoonosis, with a risk associated with bat rabies on French territory. - Several cases of bat rabies have been diagnosed. (R.A.)