LOCAL RABIES VACCINE PROGRAM UNDERWAY
Washington County will once again take part in the State Health Department’s Oral Rabies Vaccination Program.
Seventeen counties in this area are having the oral rabies vaccine dropped from airplanes.
The program takes to the air this week to prevent two strains of rabies from making a comeback in the state. This year’s program will also try to determine whether the same program can effectively fight rabies in skunks.
Planes are taking off from La Grange, beginning this afternoon, with flights over the skunk study area that covers portions of 17 counties from Madison and Walker in the north, southwest to Bastrop, then southeast to Wharton and Fort Bend.
Operations at La Grange will take about a week, weather permitting, before crews move to the border area.
The project is expected to be complete around Feb. 1.
The program will drop about 1.4 million doses in the skunk study area.
The vaccine has proven safe in more than 60 species of animals and is not a danger to humans, but people should avoid handling the vaccine baits because human contact makes it less likely wild animals will eat them.
Dogs, cats and livestock that eat the vaccine baits are not considered vaccinated against rabies.
This program reminds me of the screw worm eradication dropping sterile flies from planes about 55 years ago. I lived in Fayette County on a farm and we would find the small cardboard boxes that fell with the flies. It was a successful program for livestock.