Could animal bites need to break the skin in order to transmit the rabies virus?

Portal for virus: Breaking of the skin is usually required to transmit the rabies virus. However, this can be sometimes be difficult to ascertain, and since the virus is deadly, it is safer to get proper treatment sooner than later. Saliva from an infected animal carries the virus, so if that got into a previous wound or eye, that could allow the virus to gain entry.

Not necessarily: In fact, an animal bite is not needed to be infected with rabies. A rabies infection could result if the saliva of a rabid animal contacts an open wound or the eye of a person. There have been documented cases of rabies infection without a history of an animal bite. It is presumed that the infection may have occured via the aforementioned ways.