Wildlife Services, a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will distribute oral rabies vaccine baits beginning on or about Aug. 11 through Aug. 18 in northeastern Maine. The distribution is part of ongoing cooperative rabies control efforts aimed at reducing raccoon rabies and is the 14th annual distribution of this vaccine.
In cooperation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) and the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, 125,000 oral rabies vaccination (ORV) baits targeting raccoons will be distributed by air and ground methods over a 900-square mile area.
The area includes the northeast Aroostook County, including Caribou, Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Ashland and Mapleton. Vaccines will be distributed by air in rural wooded areas. Personnel from Wildlife Services will distribute vaccine baits from vehicles in the more populated areas.
Since 2003, Wildlife Services has been working to eliminate raccoon rabies from northern Maine because the virus poses a threat to human and animal health. So far this year, 25 cases of animal rabies have been diagnosed in 10 of Maine’s 16 counties in six types of animals: cat, cow, fox, raccoon, skunk and woodchuck. Animal rabies in Aroostook County was last reported in 2010. Wildlife Services collaborates with Canadian officials in New Brunswick and Quebec to reduce the presence of rabies across northern Maine and Canada.
ORV baits are coated with fishmeal and are distributed in one-inch square cubes or two-inch plastic sachets. Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits but should leave them undisturbed, should they encounter them.
This vaccine has been shown to be safe in more than 60 different species of animals, including domestic dogs and cats. Dogs that consume large numbers of baits may experience an upset stomach but there are no long-term health risks.
Rabies is an infectious viral disease that affects the nervous system of humans and other mammals. It is normally transmitted through a bite of an infected animal. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms are present, although timely post-exposure treatment is effective in preventing the disease in humans.
To help protect yourself and your pet against rabies, you should:
• Keep your pet’s rabies vaccination current;
• Feed pets indoors;
• Keep garbage cans or other sources of food tightly secured;
• Do not feed, touch or adopt wild animals and be cautious of stray dogs and cats;
• Do not relocate wildlife because this can spread rabies into new areas; and
• Contact the Wildlife Services at 1-866-487-3297 to report dead or suspicious-acting raccoons, skunks, foxes or coyotes in northern Maine.
If contact with baits occurs, immediately rinse the contact area with warm water and soap. For photos of ORV baits, visit www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/sets/72157623983143606/.
If you are bitten or scratched by an animal, wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and contact your health care provider and the Maine CDC at 1-800-821-5821.
For additional information concerning the raccoon oral rabies vaccine program, visit the USDA website at: www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife-damage/rabies or call 1-866-4-USDA-WS (1-800-487-3297). The ORV distribution program is part of the National Rabies Management Program. The funds for this program are federally-appropriated specifically to USDA Wildlife Services for rabies management.
