DSHS anti-rabies program to include vaccine bait distribution by hand in El Paso area

Texas Department of State of Health Services will expand anti-rabies efforts around the El Paso area in January during the agency's 32^nd annual Oral Rabies Vaccination Program. Aerial bait distribution, which occurs along much of the Texas-Mexico border, was increased last year to include far West Texas as a response to the Arizona Fox rabies variant that is now established in New Mexico and within 150 miles of the Texas border.

In addition to those continued flights this year, rabies vaccine baits will also be distributed by hand in targeted areas around the city.

"Our mission is to vaccinate wildlife along the borders of Texas to maintain herd immunity against rabies and keep new or previously eliminated rabies variants from becoming established in any part of Texas," said Kathy Parker, ORVP Director and Field Surveillance Lead. "However, we continue to monitor all the counties of Texas for outbreaks and/or potential areas of rabies interest."

The rabies vaccine bait air drop will begin with flights from Alpine on Jan. 16, with additional flights slated to originate from Del Rio International Airport on Jan. 21, weather permitting. The vaccine bait, manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., is enclosed in a small plastic packet (similar to a fast-food ketchup package) dipped in fish oil and fish-meal crumbles to attract wild canids, like coyotes and foxes.

The baits do not pose a threat to pets, livestock or wildlife. The annual ORVP project costs $2 million and is funded by the State of Texas and the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services.

Between six and nine flights are scheduled per day during the two-week operation, with airdrop aircraft flying at 500 to 1,000 feet above ground level and dropping roughly 693,600 oral rabies vaccine baits at 50 baits per square mile. ORVP's Border Maintenance Zone includes 19 Texas counties including El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Brewster, Pecos, Terrell, Val Verde, Kinney, Maverick, Zavala, Dimmit, Webb, Zapata, Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy.

In addition to the hand-distribution efforts in the El Paso area, baits will also be distributed by hand in parts of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties.

ORVP has successfully stemmed the spread of the domestic dog/coyote rabies variant and the Texas gray fox variant. Before the program's inception more than 30 years ago, human deaths due to canine rabies were occurring in Texas, and many people exposed to rabies had to receive postexposure rabies treatment.

There were 122 confirmed animal cases of the domestic dog/coyote rabies variant in 1994 in Texas. The first bait air drop was conducted in 1995 in South Texas, and by the year 2000 animal cases had dropped to zero. One animal case of the domestic dog/coyote rabies virus variant was reported in 2001 and another in 2004, but both of those were cases confirmed within a mile of the Rio Grande River and likely in wildlife that crossed the border from Mexico.

In 1996, ORVP began air-dropping rabies vaccine bait targeting the gray fox variant in West and Central Texas. More than 240 animal cases from this variant were confirmed in 1995 in Texas, but that fell to zero cases by May 2009. While a case of fox variant rabies was confirmed in a cow in 2013, expanded vaccine bait distribution in the following years have led to no additional confirmed cases in Texas.

Since ORVP began, no human cases of rabies attributable to these rabies virus variants have been confirmed in Texas.

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