Texas DSHS will airdrop rabies vaccination bait for wildlife across the state.

By  Julianna Russ                      

oral rabies vaccine packages (Texas Department of State Health Services Photo)

ATLANTA (KXAN) – Tuesday marked the start of the 29th oral rabies immunisation programme vaccine bait airdrop, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The DSHS stated that four Beechcraft aircraft from Dynamic Aviation Group, Inc. and a Hughes helicopter from Texas Wildlife Services would each fly eight to twelve times per day at a height of 500 to 1,000 feet and at intervals of half a mile.

Nearly 814,000 oral rabies vaccination baits would be dropped during the airdrop, according to the DSHS, which would last for about two weeks throughout the state.

Our aim is to immunise animals along the border, with coyotes and grey foxes as our target species, to preserve herd immunity and prevent the reintroduction of old variations or the entry of new variants into Texas, according to Dr. Susan Rollo, director of the ORVP. This year, we will supply vaccination baits to 18 counties.

According to the DSHS, the state and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services funded the study, which cost close to $2 million.

The vaccination has been shown to be safe in 60 species of animals and birds, according to Rollo. "Even if the vaccine is consumed, neither people nor animals can contract rabies from it. To be safe, the Texas Department of State Health Services should be alerted if a domestic animal or person is exposed to the vaccination.

According to the DSHS, rabies is nearly always deadly if it affects a human or animal and is generally transmitted by the bite of an infected animal.

The health agency claims that skunks and bats are now Texas's two main rabies carriers.