In the early 1900s, more than 100 people died annually from rabies in the United States.
These days, that number is five or less.
And although hundreds of domestic animals and livestock still contract the disease every year, their numbers were historically much higher too. All species of mammals are susceptible to rabies infections. But only a few of those species act as reservoirs, or hosts that allow the virus to spread.
And so, since 1995, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has run a yearly campaign that aims to keep rabies at bay in one population in particular: raccoons.
Vaccines from the sky
Every year, the USDA drops millions of oral rabies vaccines across fourteen states, mostly along the eastern seaboard. (Texas also has a program.) In urban and suburban areas, this usually means officials drive around, depositing bait where raccoons are likely to find it and eat it, like around dumpsters.
In rural areas, though, there's a more efficient way to distribute the bait.
"They're scattered by these low flying planes. And the planes have a tube and a conveyor belt that just drops these vaccines to make sure they're sort of evenly dispersed," says Emily Mullin, a staff writer for WIRED who covered the USDA raccoon vaccination program for Undark.
The program covers tens of thousands of square miles. So far, the program has been a big success. It has essentially stopping the geographic spread of rabies in the eastern U.S., according to Jordona Kirby, a USDA wildlife biologist and field coordinator for the National Rabies Management Program.
Source: mprnews.org
Photo Credit - usda
Categories: Minnesota, Government & Policy