Bait containing rabies vaccine to be dropped in rural areas of Charlotte County, N.B.

FREDERICTON – The New Brunswick government is taking to the skies to combat rabies in the Charlotte County area.

The province says bait that contains the rabies vaccine will be dropped in rural areas of the county by a yellow airplane flying at about 200 metres beginning Aug. 21, if weather permits.

In urban areas, the bait will be distributed on the ground by hand within a week of the aerial drop.

Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries spokeswoman Elaine Bell said the Charlotte County area has seen 20 confirmed cases of the disease, 18 in raccoons and two in skunks, since May 2014.

Bell said exposure to the bait is not harmful to people or pets, but if exposure happens, the province recommends seeing a doctor or veterinarian as a precaution.

The government is spending $600,000 on the program this year.

“Oral vaccination is a cost-effective method of vaccinating a large number of wild animals over a wide-ranging area in a short period of time,” a news release said.

A provincial rabies committee was formed earlier this year to develop a long-term plan to deal with the spread of rabies in the Charlotte County area.

Bell says before May 2014, there had been no confirmed cases of rabies in the province in 12 years.

The province has said raccoon rabies entered New Brunswick from Maine in the fall of 2000, when 13 cases were reported in raccoons and skunks. In 2001, 48 cases were reported in wild animals.

The first wildlife rabies control program was delivered in 2001.