I'm concerned about a possible rabies transmission from cardboard and a bucket used to trap and release a bat. My concern is if I got a small amount of saliva on my fingertips from the cardboard, small enough that I didn't notice it, and a couple minutes, later after my fingertip would have felt mostly dry, scratched an open rash on my knuckle, or rash on my face. Could the virus live long enough on my fingertip with the natural moisture of my finger and/or the lotion I use (Cetaphil)? I'm concerned that while scratching I may have worked the virus into an open rash. I wasn't able to find much info on the ability of rabies to survive on a finger, other than drying kills it, but no one said how soon and my finger might not have been completely dry, and that mildly low pH's cause it to fuse with cells.

I have talked to a zoonosis expert who seems convinced any saliva would have dried on the cardboard and not to worry, but I don't have any proof that it was.