The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) will expand its anti-rabies program in the El Paso area this January as part of the agency’s 32nd annual Oral Rabies Vaccination Program (ORVP). The initiative includes both aerial and hand distribution of rabies vaccine baits to wildlife, a measure taken in response to the spread of the Arizona Fox rabies variant, which is now established in New Mexico and within 150 miles of the Texas border.
Kathy Parker, ORVP Director and Field Surveillance Lead, explained the purpose behind these efforts. “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,” she said. “However, we continue to monitor all the counties of Texas for outbreaks and/or potential areas of rabies interest.”
Aerial bait drops are scheduled to begin with flights departing from Alpine on January 16. Additional flights are planned from Del Rio International Airport starting January 21, weather permitting. The oral vaccine baits are produced by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., packaged in small plastic packets coated with fish oil and fish-meal crumbles designed to attract coyotes and foxes.
According to DSHS, these baits do not pose risks to pets, livestock, or other wildlife. The annual cost for ORVP is $2 million, funded by both the State of Texas and the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services.
During a two-week period, between six and nine flights per day will distribute approximately 693,600 oral rabies vaccine baits across 19 counties that make up ORVP’s Border Maintenance Zone. These include El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Brewster, Pecos, Terrell, Val Verde, Kinney, Maverick, Zavala, Dimmit, Webb, Zapata, Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties.
Hand-distribution efforts will target specific areas around El Paso as well as parts of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties.
Since its start over three decades ago,the ORVP has been credited with halting the spreadof domestic dog/coyote rabies variant as well as the Texas gray fox variant in animals across large portions of Texas. Prior to this program’s launch more than 30 years ago,human deaths due to canine rabies were reported in Texas, often resulting in postexposure treatment for those exposed.
In 1994 there were 122 confirmed animal cases involving domestic dog/coyote rabies variant statewide.After aerial bait drops began in South Texas in 1995, animal cases dropped sharply—to zero by 2000—with only two isolated cases near the Rio Grande River reported since then.
For gray fox variant rabies,more than 240 animal cases were confirmed statewide in 1995. Following targeted air-drops beginning in West and Central Texas that year,cases fell steadily until reaching zero by May 2009. A single case was detected in a cow in 2013; however,expanded baiting prevented further spreadin subsequent years.
No human cases linked directly to these particular virus variants have been recorded since ORVP began.
