Wildlife Rabies Update

Our team won the Wednesday night trivia contest at the local wine bar. That's the good news. The bad news is we have to drink the free New Mexico wine next week.

One of my trivia team mates, Caroline, is something of a local celebrity having fended off a rabid fox while walking her dog, Satchmo, on Boston Hill. Boston Hill is a former mining area that has been deeded to the city as open space. It's right in the middle of town and serves as a great hiking and biking venue for the locals. I hike up there three times a week and it was the site of my infamous bike crash last Thanksgiving.

It's also home to lots of local wildlife and potentially rabid Gray Foxes.

Caroline and Satchmo were innocently walking along when out of nowhere a fox ran up as if to attack her. Luckily Satchmo beat a hasty retreat cowering behind his mistress while she bravely whacked the fox on the bridge of its nose with the end of the leash until it gave up and ran off. Caroline said she was

so shocked she didn't have time to be scared and simply reacted. It was all over pretty fast and since no  saliva was exchanged neither Caroline nor Satchmo has to go through the post exposure protocol. [Satchmo is the white lab in the pic]

As I flew out of Silver this morning on my way to the annual meeting of the American Animal Hospital Association in Tampa, I noticed a front page story on our local rabies epizootic. It appears we are thinking about an oral rabies vaccination program for wildlife.

The local authorities are in touch with the US Department of Agriculture investigating the feasibility of getting something going in our county. It's an expensive proposition and budgets are tight. Both state and federal funds would be required to initiate a program.

I found an interesting site that explains the nuts and bolts of wildlife vaccination. They have some interesting photos too.

Apparently in an area like ours they would hand distribute the baited vaccines in places like Boston Hill and distribute by air plane on the ranch land surrounding town.

The vaccine is sequestered inside baits that have either dog food or fish oil as an attractant. The target animal smells the highly pungent fish oil and when they bite into the bait the vaccine portion ruptures in the critter's mouth and it works like any other vaccination stimulating immunity to rabies.

People and pets are in no danger from the baits. Like all modern vaccines you can't actually get the disease from the vaccination.

These programs have been successful in other areas, most notably in halting the spread of the raccoon epzootic in the Northeast. Apparently the USDA has successfully established a perimeter and continues to vaccinate within the epizootic zone.

I'll let you know whether we get a program going. It could be cool to volunteer to help distribute baits up on Boston Hill. I know where the foxes are as I've seen healthy ones up there on several occasions.