Thursday, October 13, 2011

Helicopter bait drop across central Alabama aims to stop spread of rabies

AUTAUGA COUNTY, Alabama – Biologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are one day shy of completing a week-long airborne effort to introduce a vaccine that will help stop the spread of rabies in Central Alabama.

The $100,000 project funded by the USDA was prompted by the discovery of seven rabies cases in Autauga and Elmore counties, which,  according to experts, is unusually high number of cases in one year.

"Not a single case was reported from 2003 to 2009. Since then, thirteen cases have been reported in central Alabama alone," said USDA Rabies Field Coordinator Jordana Kirby.

So far, the four-person USDA crew has dropped more than 61,000 edible packets containing a liquid vaccination via helicopter over a 400-square-mile area east of the Coosa River since Tuesday.

The ketchup-packet-sized sacks -- coated in fish oil and fish meal to attract local raccoons, coyotes and foxes -- are designed to be ingested by the animals to prevent further transmission of the disease westward of the Coosa River. According to Kirby, rivers serve as a geographic barrier to raccoons, which are usually reluctant to swim because they lack waterproof fur.

Kirby said it will take four weeks for an animal to develop an immunity to rabies once they consume the vaccine.

Read more and photos:  http://blog.al.com

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