USDA to airdrop millions of rabies vaccine doses over these states (spoiler: pretty much the US southeastern ones)

ORV Bait types (top right to bottom left): blister pack, fishmeal-coated cube, fishmeal-coated sachet. (USDA)

As rabies remains a serious public health concern, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be spreading millions of rabies vaccine doses in bait across the Southeast.

The annual program is aimed at stopping the spread of raccoon rabies by airdropping and spreading fishmeal-coated sachets of the vaccine to be consumed by wildlife.

During October, the following projects will distribute rabies vaccines to wildlife:

The Abingdon, Va., project will cover parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and a small portion of southern West Virginia, distributing more than 686,000 ORV baits by airplane, helicopter, and vehicle.

The Andrews, N.C., project will include areas in western North Carolina and north Georgia and will distribute approximately 415,000 ORV baits by airplane, helicopter and vehicle.

The Dalton, Ga., project will cover areas in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, distributing 648,000 ORV baits by airplane and helicopter.

The Gadsden, Ala., project will cover parts of northeast and central Alabama and distribute approximately 712,000 baits by airplane, helicopter, and vehicle.

If you encounter the rabies vaccine sachets, you should leave them undisturbed. They are safe for domestic dogs and cats. The USDA said dogs that eat multiple baits may experience a temporary upset stomach, but there are no long-term health risks.

FOX Carolina News asked why South Carolina, which also sees dozens of cases of raccoon rabies per year, is not included in the program.

A spokesperson for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued the following statement:

"Oral rabies vaccine zones are positioned in areas of states representing the westernmost extent of where raccoon rabies is present geographically. In the southeast, those boundaries are present in southeast VA, western NC, east TN, northern GA and AL. The goal is to prevent westward spread of raccoon rabies by creating a continuous vaccine barrier that stays in front of rabies occurrence on the landscape that eventually will be moved further to the east as rabies is locally and regionally eliminated. The program is very close to establishing an ORV area in South Carolina counties bordering North Carolina and Georgia in the next few years. However, raccoon rabies is present throughout the state of SC and other nearby states and the program does not 'spot treat' local areas of outbreak that are not part of the continuous barrier

mrmisses 46 points 5 days ago

So vaccines work? Someone tell rfk

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altphoto 27 points 5 days ago

He's busy collecting all the racoon dicks for later.

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_stranger_ 10 points 5 days ago

Hopefully the non vaccinated ones.

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anon6789 9 points 5 days ago

I would enjoy that irony.

He cut federal funding for providing rabies control resources to states, using the flawed logic of a small number of deaths means we don't need to provide so many resources. Of course, this is solely because we spend so much effort on controlling things, as this is a horrible and fatal disease.

The U.S. rabies death rate indeed may be low, with only 89 rabies-related deaths since 1990. But rabies-related interactions with the U.S. healthcare system in general, and with the CDC in particular, are anything but rare, cautioned Ryan Wallace, DVM, of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

"I really want to emphasize that rabies is a daily threat here in the United States and a daily challenge for our public health departments," Wallace said.

Annually, an estimated 1.3 million people in the U.S. seek medical care for an animal bite, according to the CDC, and about 100,000 of them (7%) get rabies PEP. There are an average of two rabies consultations daily in the roughly 3,000 health departments in the U.S., Wallace said, and the CDC receives seven rabies consultations every day. Overall, the nation's rabies prevention system costs about $7.2 billion per year to operate, he added. (Medpage)

I'm going to assume, with all his wildlife handling, that he is likely vaccinated himself, but I wouldn't cry if he won a Herman Cain Award.

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HubertManne 5 points 5 days ago

I sorta wish insurance would cover it for the general public. When you read how bad it is and how bad it is if your bitten and have to get it in an emergency manner. The way I understand it the prophylatic type shot you do ahead of time is not a big deal and then if you get bit you just need a not to bad booster or something.

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Mouselemming 3 points 4 days ago

He's probably accidentally inoculated himself by having eaten something that had eaten one of these baits

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DarkSirrush 3 points 5 days ago

The biggest voices in antivax are ALL fully vaccinated.

Its funny how, as adults, they are upset about being vaccinated, because it was something done to them against their will as a child, and yet they fully support the current administration and want everyone to forget about the Epstein files.

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anon6789 8 points 5 days ago

This is under Sec. of Agriculture Brooke Collins, who took over from acting secretary Joe Grogan (probably not a made up name.)

She has some agricultural background, but has also been in many made up sounding organizations and think tanks.

The wiki actually says some were hoping she would have been made head of Health and Human Services instead of RFK Jr. She was also possibly going to be White House chief of staff. Seems like they just kinda shove whomever wherever a lot of the time. The spoils systems appears to be alive and well...

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A_norny_mousse 3 points 5 days ago

But do they work when you're already infected? Pretty sure a significant part of MAGA has the rabies.

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StabbingSky 5 points 5 days ago

If you're fast enough, yes. But once you start showing symptoms, you're dead

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mrmisses 1 point 5 days ago

We can only hope

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Edges 22 points 5 days ago

Glad to see programs like this. Rabies is a demon

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anon6789 9 points 5 days ago

I've got my preventative shots already! 💉

I'll still get sick if I'm infected, but I shouldn't die. 🤞

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Malica 2 points 5 days ago

Me too. Got bit by a stray dog as a toddler.

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anon6789 3 points 5 days ago

Any residual werewolf powers?

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Malica 2 points 5 days ago

Unfortunately no

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enchanted 15 points 5 days ago

So rabies vaccines come as edibles now? Why does my dog still need an injection for it?

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anon6789 24 points 5 days ago

Excellent question!

It mostly boils down to ORV being a newer product. Giving them a traditional shot (known as a parenteral vaccine) is backed up with greater history and that is what is accepted as effective rabies control in pets in every country. It's also cheaper to provide, and licensed providers are trained in its proper use. The effective rate is very high - 92.7% in this study comparing effectiveness of parenteral vs ORV vaccinations.

In that same study, ORV had an appropriate antibody producing response in 77.8% of the dogs evaluated. That's about 15% less effective, and without a 70% effectiveness, an area is not considered to be effectively covered, so that doesn't leave much of a margin of error. Given the study was done with many wild or free-roaming dogs, they also could not determine if all vaccine was fully consumed, or if the vaccine containing blister in the bait was fully punctured.

Successful oral vaccination is complex and requires a series of critical steps, including that the animal is attracted to the bait, the blister is punctured, and the vaccine has adequate contact time with the oral mucosa. Any breakdown in these steps can result in vaccination failure.

They also tested improperly stored vaccines against the oral vaccine, since they were looking at effectiveness in parts of the world where veterinary care was unaffordable or unfeasable, and the potentially weakened or expired vaccines could still be more effective, assuming the animals can be caught to inject.

So, we're not there yet with this being a proven or accepted method for pets, which are going to be around, and therefore biting, humans much more often than wild dogs or wildlife. But in cases where there are large numbers of wild domestic animals with no owners or owners with means to get them vaccinated, or with wildlife, ORV is almost 80% more effective than the nothing they'd otherwise receive.

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Delta_V 8 points 5 days ago

Maybe the rabiolis only work on raccoons?

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anon6789 3 points 5 days ago

rabiolis

You win my Lemmy Gold for the day! 🤣

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HubertManne 3 points 5 days ago

my first though but for humans. like if I get bit can I just eat something instead of a bunch of legendary aweful injections.

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anon6789 3 points 5 days ago

Honestly, that would be great for a pre-exposure vaccine for someone like me. I have to get a titer regularly anyway, which no one does on their pet, so the lower effectiveness isn't such the potential drawback as it is for them. (The cost would have to be lower to make it worth it though.) My shots were a series of 3 subcutaneous injections, the primary, a second 7 days later, and the third was 14 days after the second, then give it 4 weeks+ and get the titer. Didn't hurt, just felt like a really swollen bug bite.

Cost is a huge issue, though I think it's more a supply/demand thing for the human version than the vaccine in general, as there are endless free/low cost shot clinics for pets. Average price for humans is around $1200 USD for the series of 3. It also doesn't last very long. We need to get retested every 2 years and get a booster if we dip below the suggested antibody level. Being volunteers, we had access to some off-label, but effective access to the shots, making them $100 each for the 3-shot series I got and another $100 for the booster since the initial 3 didn't give me enough resistance.

Even at that steep discount, think about how often you feel you may be exposed to rabies, and ask yourself if you'd pay the original $300, and then an ongoing $100 maybe every 2 years or so... Keep in mind, if I get bit, I would still need to get post-exposure shots because I'm not crazy. Insurance should cover shots after a bite, but I'm on a high deductible plan, so I'll be paying for those too in all likelihood, should I need them.

Rabies also usually takes a few days to weeks (sometimes longer even) to travel through our nervous system, so you will often have (relatively!) ample time to get a post-exposure vaccine that is just as effective. So between the cost, low effective time, and typical lack of necessity for most people, it doesn't make sense for regular people to get vaccinated.

Here is a really good, simple, yet very elaborate article from CHOP about pre- and post-exposure vaccines. It should cover almost any questions you guys should have.

Also, to assuage the fear some may have based on getting post-exposure shots, it's no longer a huge series of painful injections.

An older rabies vaccine required up to 30 shots and was quite painful. It is no longer available. The current rabies vaccine requires only two to four shots (depending on previous vaccination status) following a potential exposure to the virus, and it is much less painful.

The CHOP article says the shots are in the shoulder, but I also have heard there are shots at the bite site, and this CDC article talks about a combo of one shot at the bite site, and up to 4 in the shoulder.

There's also one thing more I want to touch on since we're getting deep into this...

People get rabies from exposure to the saliva of an infected animal. Any mammal can get rabies, but the most commonly infected animals in the U.S. are raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes.

Rabies can be transmitted:

If a bite from an infected animal penetrates the skin

If an infected animal licks an open wound, cut or scratch

If the animal licks the mouth, nose or eyes of a person

Simply petting a rabid animal will not transmit rabies.

It's this last transmission risk (If the animal licks the mouth, nose or eyes of a person) I'd like to reinforce.

You can handle an animal to bring it to a rehab. But, (begin rant) this is one of the huge reasons we stress to handle them minimally and not to hold them unnecessarily, and for the love of all that is holy...do not let kids touch them! We have to euthanize any animal that may have potentially infected someone. If you have people touching it, holding it, etc, you are greatly going to put that animal at risk of being put down even if it is likely 100% healthy because the government mandates we protect the lives of ignorant humans over the animals.

If you think this ignorance is uncommon, you will be sadly let down. We have people that hold onto the animal for days, lets friends/family/kids play and take selfies with them cuz ooooo....wild animal! We have people eat/drink/smoke/dip/etc right after handling them. And we will tell you to go get rabies shots and we will have to euthanize that animal, baby, young, old, sick, healthy, whatever. Handle them the bare minimum, then wash your dang hands, and get that animal to a clinic pronto! (end rant)

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HubertManne 3 points 5 days ago

see I feel if the prophylactic shot was available to everyone and covered I think the cost of the injections would go way down to were its not costing the system that much. Don't really need to titer if its just general prophylactic but the way I understand it then you would just need a booster if you got bit. Yeah though I could not swing the $300 certainly now and given how unoften could not even see it as a splurge when I have money. Curiously we get my dog titered because she has these bowel issues that are tied to allergy and basically almost anything sends her into a flare. she only gets a boost when the titer shows low.

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anon6789 2 points 5 days ago

if the prophylactic shot was available to everyone and covered I think the cost of the injections would go way down

100% agree, it's not like it's new medicine.

The long term effectiveness is still a bit of a hassle. It'd be the same as with pets, where every 1-3 years, we'd have to get boosters. It's much more likely for someone's animal to get into contact with infected wildlife, especially if they get out of site and can't communicate potential exposures to us. We thankfully are aware when we're in contact with sketchy animals and can get ourselves to help. We'd still need to get our pets the shots, and they are our primary transmission vector, rather than the wildlife itself. And we'd still need the post-transmission vaccine, which is just an extra shot or 2 than someone pre-vaxxed would need.

I wouldn't tell anyone not to get it if they felt it would benefit them. Other than the money and the special travel, it was quick and almost fully painless. But we already pay out of pocket for our pets, removing almost all risk for normal people, and insurance already covers the post shots which will still save your life just as reliably, so I can see why they'd not want to cover both. It's probably an unfounded worry on their part too, as I don't think millions would be flocking to get it. Most normies don't want to be touching random bitey wild animals to begin with.

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TubularTittyFrog 3 points 5 days ago

because your dog isn't a racoon.

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anon6789 2 points 5 days ago

What if raccoon dog?

(technically a canid, but not a dog (Canis))

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nullspace 10 points 5 days ago

Isn't that socialism?

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anon6789 8 points 5 days ago

I've never met a capitalist raccoon... 😜

Besides, the door is always open for grift in this admin!

Make what you will about this press release about how the manufacturer is excited to be working with the president and TrumpRx.

(/s... maybe... difficult to tell these days)

This program at least is inarguably a good thing. Behind the scenes, who knows?

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Anarki_ 6 points 4 days ago

Rabioli

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medicsofanarchy 4 points 5 days ago

Thank God RFK doesn't believe in vaccines, at least for people. Can you imagine millions of needle-tipped syringes filled with flu vaccine plummeting from the sky? Like confetti made of lawn darts.

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anon6789 4 points 5 days ago

From the team that brought us "nuke the hurricane"... 🫣

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poplargrove 2 points 4 days ago

Have they started yet? Curious what they taste like.

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anon6789 1 point 4 days ago

Probably not great.

Fish meal can be made from almost any type of seafood, but is generally manufactured from wild-caught, small marine fish that contain a high percentage of bones and oil. Previously, these fish have been considered unsuitable for direct human consumption, but more recent research indicates the vast majority of fishmeal made from whole wild-caught fish is made from fish suitable for direct human consumption. Other sources of fishmeal are from bycatch and byproducts of trimmings made during processing (fish waste or offal) of various seafood products destined for direct human consumption.

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UninvestedCuriosity 2 points 4 days ago

That's really cool. They should let people mail in for a handful that they can toss around their neighbourhoods in key places and really crowd source this or let local libraries distribute them as well to people. There's a few places I know they would absolutely have some proliferation into the wildlife populations around me.

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anon6789 1 point 4 days ago

I'm of mixed opinion on this. I meet way too many people that throw Ivermectin around like candy for mange in foxes. It's nice people want to help, but nobody knows how many other neighbors are dosing animals, and Ivermectin can be fatal with overexposure to people's pets, which doesn't sound like a problem for these rabies bites, but I see people all the time that make animals' situations worse by trying to be the doctor themselves.

Plus after all those Tide Pod incidents, I'm not sure how much I trust humans not to try and eat them themselves anymore... 😅

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Tollana1234567 1 point 4 days ago

raccoons and skunks are the most common spreads of rabies after BATS, dogs and cats arnt even close to these. since its impossible to vaccinate insectivorious bats, because they fly.

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anon6789 2 points 4 days ago

That really goes to show how successful preventative vaccination has been. We're around so many more dogs than wild animals, and they used to be our most common exposure and many more people died from rabies. 91 million pet vaccines are given annually in the US to cats and dogs. 10 million are distributed to wildlife through baits.

In the U.S., around 4,000 animal rabies cases are reported each year, with more than 90% occurring in wildlife like bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes. This is a big change from the 1960s, when domestic animals, mainly dogs, represented most of the rabies cases.

Wild animals account for more than 90% of reported cases, with bats (35%), raccoons (29%), skunks (17%), and foxes (8%) most often exposing Americans to rabies.

Rabies Virus Variant territories in the United States. Abbreviations: ARC FX = Arctic Fox, CA SK = California Skunk, AZ FX = Arizona Gray Fox, SC SK = South Central Skunk, NC SK = North Central Skunk, E RC = Eastern Raccoon, MG = Mongoose

(CDC)

The mongoose was a surprise for me, though that's the opposite part of the country from me.

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Tollana1234567 2 points 3 days ago

i assume thats haiti? im guessing the mongoose is an invasive species, since they are mostly from south east asia/indian subcontinent(javanese mongoose). the mongoose is predator on small animals, so im not surprised they would be carriers.

artic fox is a strange one.

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anon6789 1 point 3 days ago

It's Puerto Rico on that map, since that map is from a US report, but it sounds like a concern for most of the Caribbean.

Mongooses were introduced to several Caribbean islands in a misguided attempt to control rat populations. Now there are an estimated 2 million mongooses on Puerto Rico, with up to 2% infected with rabies (about 80% of rabies cases). Around 25 people are exposed to suspected rabid mongooses every day, with about 2/day requiring PEP treatment. The mongoose is now present on many Caribbean islands, with Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Haiti also having to deal with mongoose rabies. Many of the islands, including Puerto Rico, also struggle with large free-roaming dog populations that can transmit rabies. Translocation of dogs and mongooses that are unknowingly infected with rabies to new areas in the Caribbean remains a real risk. (Rabies Alliance)

I just skimmed the intro to this report on arctic rabies and it sounds like the long incubation time, the large distances the fixes travel, and their attraction the rodents going after human food all lead to increased spread and contact with humans.

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Tollana1234567 2 points 2 days ago

i think because artic foxes have such huge ranges, and are most isolated from one another it would be minimal?

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