The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services is asking for the public’s help as it works to determine the frequency of rabies in southeastern Tennessee raccoons. Anyone who encounters a raccoon that is sick-acting or behaving unusually is asked to report the animal.
No raccoons in Tennessee have tested positive for the raccoon variant, or variety, of rabies since April 2012 and none have tested positive in Hamilton County since 2008. This surveillance effort is being taken because of recent rabies-positive animals in northeastern Alabama. In cooperation with state and local agencies, USDA’s Wildlife Services wants to determine whether the disease is occurring in Tennessee raccoons.
The public in Lincoln, Moore and Franklin Counties is asked to report any dead raccoons, including those struck by vehicles, or live raccoons acting in an unusual way. In towns and suburbs, seeing raccoons during the day is not unusual. Any raccoon, however, that appears to be friendly or unafraid or appears sick (staggering, unsteady or aggressive) should be reported. Calls should be made to 865 771-7256.
USDA biologists or specialists will respond and remove the animal or carcass to test it for rabies.
This year, 10 animals -- chiefly raccoons -- have tested positive for the raccoon variant of rabies in northeast Alabama, primarily in Jackson County.
Signs suggestive of rabies include unusual, aggressive or calm and “friendly” behavior, an inability to eat or drink, balance problems, circling, seizures, coma and finally death. While rabies is fatal, human exposures can be successfully treated if treatment is sought immediately following exposure.
Rabies is caused by a virus that infects the central nervous system in mammals and represents a serious public health concern. If exposures to the virus are not treated it is almost always fatal. Costs associated with detection, prevention and control of rabies exceed $300 million annually in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90 percent of reported rabies cases in the U.S. are in wildlife. People are urged not to make contact with or feed wildlife and to keep their pets’ rabies vaccinations current.
This operation seeks to confirm that rabies has not become common in these three Tennessee Counties. As part of the USDA National Rabies Management Program, oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits have been distributed through aerial drops and by hand in the state since 2002. The area to be baited in Tennessee will be expanded in the October 2014 campaign to include portions of Grundy, Franklin, Lincoln, Marion, Moore and Sequatchie counties. The normal target area includes portions of Bradley, Hamilton, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe, Polk, Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties.
Oral rabies vaccination baits are coated with a fishmeal attractant and may be packaged in one-inch square cubes or two-inch plastic sachets. The Raboral V-RG vaccine has been shown to be safe in more than 60 different species of animals, including domestic dogs and cats. Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits, but are asked to leave them undisturbed should they encounter them.