NORTHEAST OHIO State will again drop rabies vaccine baits

A local project director said the money is well-spent, because the anti-rabies program is working.
By PAUL WHEATLEY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
COLUMBUS -- In the continued effort to keep rabid raccoons out of Ohio, the state's health department will drop more than 520,000 oral vaccination baits, mostly from aircraft, across the northeast part of the state.
Starting Monday, through April 4, the department and the Ohio National Guard will team up for the twice-yearly event.
They will cover about 2,509 square miles in Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and parts of Jefferson and Carroll counties.
About 459,720 baits will be spread by air; the remaining amount will be tossed from trucks by hand.
Creating a barrier: The idea has been to create a barrier of immunized raccoons to help prevent rabies from infiltrating the state.
This will be the 10th time the department has baited for raccoons.
Officials said Ohio's last reported case of raccoon-strain rabies was in November 1999 in Trumbull County, but the disease continues to circulate in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Ohio had 62 reported cases of rabid raccoons in 1997, 26 reported in 1998 and five in 1999.
The most recent statistics available show Pennsylvania had 235 reported cases as of Sept. 11; West Virginia had 70 .
Local project director Richard Setty said Pennsylvania and West Virginia do not participate in baiting programs.
The program's not cheap.
"Those little baits cost about $1.38 each," said Setty, director of environmental health at the Mahoning County Health Department.
The legislature appropriated about $5.2 million for the program for this year, and Setty thinks it's working.
"Roughly one-third of the raccoons out there are probably finding the baits and immunizing themselves," he said.
Scientists live-trap and test raccoons after baiting to measure the program's success.