East Tennessee officials report drop in rabies

Only one case of rabies has been reported in Hamilton County so far this year compared to 14 cases in 2004.

“It seems to be working,” Brett Dunlap with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. “It’s probably a combination of the (vaccine) baiting and public awareness.”

The vaccine, put onto baits the raccoons eat, has been spread in forests twice a year for the past two years. With the level of success seen so far, the program may be cut back to once a year, Dunlap said.

“It gets very expensive to purchase and get baits on the ground,” he said. “If we get the same results without having to bait twice a year, that’s the way we’d like to go.”

The vaccine baiting in East Tennessee is part of a larger effort that spreads south from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico to inoculate raccoons, which become aggressive when infected. The USDA is trying to create a “rabies barrier,” to stop the spread of the disease westward, Dunlap said.

Federal statistics show one to two people die from rabies in the U.S. each year. In Tennessee the vaccine baits have been spread over a 17-county area of southeast Tennessee.

Another vaccine distribution is scheduled for next month when 300,000 bait pellets will be spread in the Chattanooga area.

Bonnie Deakins, environmental health director for the Chattanooga-Hamilton Health Department, said the vaccination program has played a big part in reducing rabies in the area.

“If we had not had that, we would be seeing numbers this year like we saw last year or worse,” she said.

But in addition, there has been a more than 26-percent increase in the number of people vaccinating their pets against rabies since 2000, she said.