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The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) today announced the launching of the annual Oral Rabies Vaccination Program (ORVP) bait drop for animals on January 7, 2024.
The OVRP program for 2025 includes additional bait distribution areas in far West Texas, parts of El Paso County, and other counties bordering New Mexico. The geographic expansion is in response to a new Arizona fox rabies virus variant that has moved east and been confirmed in Sierra County, New Mexico.
ORVP is in its 31st year and has proven an effective defense against the spread of domestic dog/coyote rabies and the Texas gray fox variants.
Two rabies epizootics (large disease outbreaks in animals) involving coyotes and gray foxes began in 1988. The outbreaks involved the Texas fox rabies virus variant in gray fox populations in west/west-central Texas and the domestic dog-coyote rabies virus variant in coyote populations in south Texas.
No human rabies cases attributable to these variants have been identified since ORVP began.
“Texas has eliminated two canid rabies variants by using the Oral Rabies Vaccination Program,” commented Kathy Parker, DSHS ORVP Director, in a press release on January 3, 2024.
“By moving the program to include far now West Texas, DSHS strives to protect the people and animals in that area.”
Throughout the U.S., bites from bats, not dogs, cause most rabies infections in people.
During 2024, there were rabies-related fatalities reported by a resident of northern Kentucky and one in Merced County, California.
The oral rabies vaccines, enclosed in small, plastic packets that resemble fast-food ketchup packages, are dipped in fish oil and coated with fish-meal crumbles to attract targeted wildlife. They do not pose a threat to pets or other non-canine wildlife.
Before the rabies vaccination program began, Texas had experienced human deaths due to canine rabies, and many people had to receive postexposure rabies treatment following infection.
The first ORVP bait drop was held in 1995 in South Texas. In 1994, before the first airdrop, Texas had 122 animal cases of the domestic dog/coyote rabies variant.
The first vaccine airdrop targeting the fox variant was conducted in 1996 in West and Central Texas. There were 244 animal cases from this variant in 1995, but that dropped to zero cases by May 2009. A case of fox variant rabies was identified in a cow in 2013.
Still, no additional gray fox variant cases have been identified in Texas following expanded bait distribution in the following three years.
The annual project costs approximately $2.3 million and is funded by the State of Texas and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services.
Rabies is a viral infection that causes brain and spinal cord inflammation. Globally, rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease found in more than 150 countries and territories, according to the World Health Organization.
Various rabies vaccines for people are available in 2025. In the U.S., Bavarian Nordic’s RabAvert® vaccine is offered to people.
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