The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Oral Rabies Vaccination Program (ORVP) in South Texas. The program, which aims to control and prevent rabies infections among wildlife, livestock, and people, has been successful in its mission.

Kathy Parker, the ORVP project director, explained the program's goal: "Our goal is to vaccinate coyotes and gray foxes along the border to maintain herd immunity against rabies and keep new or previously eliminated rabies variants from becoming established in Texas." This year, the program will distribute vaccine baits over 18 border counties.

The ORVP, which is expected to last for two weeks, will kick off with airdrop flights from Edinburg in Hidalgo County on January 9. Additional flights will launch from Del Rio on January 15 and from Alpine on January 21. In total, four aircraft and one helicopter will be deployed for the airdrop. Flights will be conducted at 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground, with 8-16 flights per day. Over 820,000 oral vaccine rabies baits will be dropped at 64-70 baits per square mile.

The vaccine bait, resembling a fast-food ketchup package, contains a vaccine wrapped in a plastic packet dipped in fish oil and coated with fish-meal crumbles to attract wildlife. The vaccine has been proven safe for more than 60 species of mammals and birds.

Funding for the program, which costs approximately $2 million, comes from the State of Texas and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prior to the ORVP, Texas had experienced human deaths due to canine rabies, and many people in the affected area had to undergo postexposure rabies treatment. However, the ORVP has been effective in controlling the outbreak over the last three decades. The first ORVP bait drop took place in 1995 in South Texas, resulting in a significant decrease in animal rabies cases caused by the domestic dog/coyote variant of the virus.

Similarly, the first vaccine airdrop in West-Central Texas targeting the gray fox rabies virus variant occurred in 1996. The number of animal cases caused by this variant also declined significantly. Since the program's initiation, there have been no human cases of rabies attributed to any of these rabies variants.

The success of the ORVP in preventing and controlling rabies infections in Texas is a testament to its effectiveness. With the continuation of this program, Texas remains committed to safeguarding its wildlife, livestock, and people from the threat of rabies.

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To find out more, go to this link: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/dshss-annual-oral-rabies-vaccine-bait-airdrop-marks-30-years