Raccoons to get rabies vaccine

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Two planes will drop nearly 100,000 packets of raccoon rabies vaccine Thursday over two Northeast Ohio counties in an aerial assault in hopes of keeping disease from spreading west.
Planners say the idea is to entice raccoons with fishmeal bait so they bite into the vaccine and develop immunity to the rabies virus.
Conveyor-belt machines in the back of two Beechcraft Twin airplanes will drop vaccines the size of a ketchup packet every 3.3 acres throughout Lake and Geauga counties.
Workers from the state and Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga health departments will hand-drop another 32,000 larger pieces of bait in more suburban areas. These will look like square brown bricks, but also smell fishy.
Health officials say the bait won't harm people or pets, but should be left alone so raccoons can eat it.
"We've done this elsewhere before, but never this far west into Ohio," state Department of Health spokesman Lee Yoakum said Tuesday. "It's our hope that we can get about 50 percent of the raccoon population vaccinated and stop the spread westward through the area."
Raccoon-strain rabies is the most dangerous because raccoons are more likely to interact with humans and their pets, said Ohio Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Kathleen Smith.
Rabies affects the nervous system and is usually fatal unless treated. The virus is found in the saliva of an affected animal and is spread by a bite or scratch.