Northern Maine continues to see fewer cases of wildlife-related rabies than other parts of the state, and health officials want to keep it that way.
Starting this week, the United States Department of Agriculture’s animal and plant health inspection service is teaming up with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Agriculture Department to distribute 125,000 oral rabies vaccination baits in northeast Aroostook County.
The distribution area covers 900 square miles and includes Caribou, Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Ashland and Mapleton, The program is expected to run Aug. 15-23.
“We have been doing this for a number of years with the USDA,” Dr. Stephen Sears, state epidemiologist, said Monday. “This has proven to be a pretty efficient strategy to get the vaccines to wildlife.”
The distribution efforts specifically target raccoons and the fish-meal-coated bait pellets will be distributed by air and from the ground.
“The vaccine is in a fish packet and it’s made to be attractive to raccoons,” Sears said. “We want to stop the spread of rabies by raccoons in Aroostook County.”
Vaccines will be distributed by air in rural wooded areas and from vehicles in more populated areas.
Rabies is more prevalent in southern portions of the state where, according to Sears, 60 cases already have been reported for the year.
“We have not had any reports of rabies associated with northern Maine this year,” he said. “But we are pretty saturated in southern Maine.”
Rabies does pose a serious health threat to humans and can be fatal, Sears said.
The baits are coated with fishmeal and are distributed in 1-inch square cubes or 2-inch plastic packets, Sears said.
Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits but should leave them undisturbed should they encounter them.
If contact with baits occurs, immediately rinse the area affected with warm water and soap, he said.
The vaccine has been shown to be safe in more than 60 different species of animals, including domestic dogs and cats, but dogs that consume large numbers of baits may experience an upset stomach.
“It’s not unusual for a dog to pick one up and bring it home,” Sears said.
This is the ninth year the USDA has dispensed the oral vaccines and Sears said this new batch is targeted toward raccoons that may have not eaten any in previous years.
“We really do not know how long [the vaccine] is good for,” he said. “But it is probably very effective over the long haul.”
Foxes, which also can carry rabies, more than likely will consume some of the vaccine as well, Sears said.
For information on the raccoon oral rabies vaccine program, call 1-866-4-USDA-WS (1-866-487-3297).
Like the Bible, the State agencies are now trying to manipulate and control us with “fear.” Folks, the last person to die of rabies in Maine was the year I was born – 1935 – 77 years ago. In this past year, 97 people in Maine were killed in automobile accidents. Time our State agencies stopped playing games with the people and developed a vaccine to make people slow down on the highways. Speed is the major cause of accidents. PS: I have been bitten by a rabid raccoon as has my brother when we were raccoon hunters. Taking the cure is nothing. Getting bitten by a rabid animal is hardly worse than getting bitten by a mosquito. Don’t fear it.
Mosquitoes don’t take chunks out of you.
Rabid Beaver Attacks
By Brian Thompson, NBC New York
August 8, 2012
Updated Aug 7, 2012 at 6:57 PM PDT
A rabid beaver in New York’s Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area attacked a swimming Boy Scout leader last week, two hours after also attacking a canoeist, park officials said Monday.
The Boy Scout leader suffered 15 lacerations to his body in the attack, which took place Thursday, Gap spokeswoman Kathleen Sandt said.
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“He said, out of nowhere something came up and bit him in the chest,” Sandt said.
The Boy Scout leader told authorities he was bitten on his backside, his leg and arm by the frenzied beaver, all while he was swimming in the Delaware River with four scouts he brought from upstate New York.
The four scouts told rangers they were able to move the 40-something man to shore, with the beaver clamped firmly to his arm.
“The scouts used everything, anything they could find around them, sticks, rocks,” to loosen the beaver’s bite on his arm, and finally killed the animal, Sandt said.
She said testing of the animal at a lab in Albany confirmed their suspicion of rabies, and the man said he would begin shot treatment at home.
Two hours earlier, Ruth Jones, 79, a self-described river rat, lifelong resident along the Delaware and founder of Kittatiny canoes, also encountered the animal.
Jones said she saw the beaver swimming toward her and then heard a thump on the bottom of her canoe.
“We paddled downriver further and we heard the thump again under our canoe,” Jones said.
By now, she said they were paddling hard to get away from the beaver, suspecting it was rabid because its behavior was so unusual.
But the beaver was still following her canoe “and when I took a big stroke with my wooden paddle I hit the poor beaver as it was going under the canoe, not intentionally,” Jones said.
The blow must have stunned it for the moment, as she said there were no more attacks until the Boy Scouts reported their incident two hours later.
Jones said she had never seen or heard of a wild-animal attack on a human like this in the recreation area.
Park officials confirm that there is no record of such an attack, though finding rabid animals in the wild is not all that unusual.
Nonetheless, with any wild animal, the Park Service’s Sandt had this advice: “If it comes after you, you want to get away.”
The ones at my Rock Pond camp in Spencer Lake country do. They are so big that they can have sex with a turkey flat footed. Ha, ha.
Why would it be beneficial to saturate Northern Aroostook County with vaccine if the majority of cases are in Southern portions of the state? Something “fishy” here.
This is probably a regurgitated press release, thus no asking of the obvious question.
My raccoon’s love chicken cooked on kingsford .