DSHS’s Oral Rabies Vaccination Program expands bait distribution area
Texas Department of State Health Services is kicking off its annual Oral Rabies Vaccination Program bait drop Tuesday, Jan. 7, and this year includes additional bait distribution areas in far West Texas. Parts of El Paso County and other counties bordering New Mexico will be part of the 2025 vaccine drops as Texas responds to a new Arizona fox rabies virus variant that has moved east and been confirmed in Sierra County, New Mexico.
“Texas has eliminated two canid rabies variants by the utilization of the Oral Rabies Vaccination Program,” said Kathy Parker, DSHS ORVP Director. “By moving the program to now include far West Texas, DSHS is striving to protect the people and animals in that area.”
The first vaccine airdrop flights will begin in Van Horn in Culberson County, with additional flights scheduled to leave from Del Rio Jan. 14 and from Edinburg Jan. 20. More than 1 million baits will be distributed across 24 Texas border counties during this year’s ORVP. Those counties comprise the state’s Border Maintenance Zones. Six to nine flights are scheduled per day during ORVP, with aircraft flying at 500 to 1,000 feet above ground along half-mile interval lines.
The oral rabies vaccines, enclosed in small, plastic packets that resemble fast-food ketchup packages, are dipped in fish oil and coated with fish-meal crumbles to attract targeted wildlife. They do not pose a threat to pets or other non-canine wildlife. The annual project costs approximately $2.3 million and is funded by the State of Texas and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services.
ORVP is in its 31st year and has proven to be an effective defense against the spread of the domestic dog/coyote rabies variant and the Texas gray fox variant. Before the rabies vaccination program began, Texas had experienced human deaths due to canine rabies, and many people had to receive postexposure rabies treatment following infection.
The first ORVP bait drop was held in 1995 in South Texas. Texas had 122 animal cases of the domestic dog/coyote rabies variant in 1994, the year before the first airdrop, but that dropped to zero cases by the year 2000. There have been two cases due to the domestic dog/coyote rabies virus variant since that time (one in 2001 and one in 2004), but both of those cases were within a mile of the Rio Grande River.
The first vaccine airdrop targeting the fox variant was conducted in 1996 in West and Central Texas. There were 244 animal cases from this variant in 1995, but that dropped to zero cases by May 2009. A case of fox variant rabies was identified in a cow in 2013 but following expanded bait distribution in the following three years, no additional gray fox variant cases have been identified in the state.
No human cases of rabies attributable to these rabies variants have been identified since ORVP began.
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(News Media Contact: pressofficer@dshs.texas.gov)