TDH Aerial Assault on Rabies Yields Dramatic Results
TDH News Release November 26, 1997
TDH Aerial Assault on Rabies Yields Dramatic Results
A Texas Department of Health (TDH) rabies vaccine airdrop program has halted two expanding outbreaks of the deadly disease and caused a 98 percent drop in canine rabies carried by coyotes and dogs in South Texas and a 93 percent drop in cases caused by another strain of rabies spread by gray foxes in Central Texas, state health officials announced today.
Launched in 1995, TDH's state-funded $4-million-a-year oral rabies vaccination program features the air-dropping of biscuit-size rectangular baits made of dog food and fishmeal. A small plastic pouch containing an oral rabies vaccine is sealed inside the hollow baits. Coyotes and foxes eat the baits and, in effect, vaccinate themselves against rabies. The annual airdrops began in 1995 in South Texas and in 1996 in the Central Texas area.
TDH veterinarian Gayne Fearneyhough, who directs the program, said he is elated with the latest evaluation of the program's effectiveness, an assessment that includes comparing annual rabies case counts in animals and determining how many coyotes and foxes ate the baits and how many became immune. But he said the most meaningful evaluation has nothing to do with animals.
"We aren't doing this just to save coyotes and foxes. We're doing it to save people," Fearneyhough said, adding that there have been no human rabies deaths in the two areas since the program was launched. "I really believe there are children out there somewhere who are alive, well and thriving who wouldn't be if we hadn't launched this attack."
The number of animal rabies cases caused by the canine strain of the virus in South Texas plummeted from 166 in 1994 to three in 1997, a 98 percent decline. In Central Texas, the number of cases caused by the gray fox rabies strain has fallen from 188 in 1995 to 14 in 1997, a 93 percent drop. Tests indicate that 87 percent of the South Texas coyotes and 47 percent of the gray foxes in the Central Texas zone have eaten one or more of the vaccine baits. Of those, 82 percent of the coyotes and 84 percent of the gray foxes showed some level of immunity to rabies.
TDH will launch another round of the vaccine airdrop in early January. Fearneyhough said the program may be reduced to a maintenance approach three years ahead of schedule.
The South Texas zone includes all of the southern part of the state north to a line from Corpus Christi, to San Antonio to 80 miles north of Laredo. The Central Texas zone is a purse string-shaped area inside a line from Alpine to Big Spring to Stephenville to San Antonio to Uvalde. TDH field biologist Guy Moore directs the Central Texas portion of the program.
Once rabies develops in humans it is always fatal. Fearneyhough stressed the importance of continuing to vaccinate pets and other domestic animals.
For more information, contact Gayne Fearneyhough, DVM, TDH Zoonosis Control Division, 512-458-7255;
or
Doug McBride, TDH Public Information Officer, 512-458-7111, Ext. 2214, or 512-458-7400.
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