Rabies vaccine

Ontario’s been fighting a war against rabies for more than two decades now.

And as Lauran Sabourin tells us, while the province may be winning the battle, the rabies threat remains right on our doorstep.

This is the primary target for the Ministry of Natural Resources rabies baiting program. The raccoon. There are so many of them. They estimate in Toronto alone there are 100 raccoons per square kilometre.

The weapon in this fight is right here in this little packet. It looks like a dairy creamer coated with flavouring.

“When the animal is attracted by the scene of the bait it bites into the vaccine package. And it becomes immunized against rabies.”

Two hundred, twenty-five thousand of these packets are being dropped from the air and the ground. Eighty thousand in Niagara alone.

“Niagara region is on the front line in the fight against rabies. Because more than a dozen rabid raccoons were discovered this year over the river in New York State”

The drop starts this week and will cover a large area between the Niagara River and the Welland Canal.

They’ve been dropping bait for years. And so far it’s working.

“We haven’t had a case of raccoon strain rabies since 2005. And the cases we did have of raccoon rabies were all in Eastern Ontario.”

Of the 28 cases of rabies last year, most of them were in bats.

The rabies bait will be eaten by raccoons and skunks and foxes.

It’ll protect you and your pets against rabid animals.

But it can’t do anything about raccoons that destroy your house, or steal food right from under your pets noses.