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USDA DISTRIBUTES ORAL RABIES VACCINE ACROSS WEST VIRGINIA
When: Monday, Sept. 8, 2008
1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Where: Bluefield/Mercer County Airport
Route 5
Bluefield, WV
Who: Gus R. Douglass
Commissioner, West Virginia Department of Agriculture
Keith Wehner, USDA, APHIS, wildlife services program
Contact: Brie German 603-724-4905
USDA, APHIS public affairs
Note: In-flight b-roll will be available
Bluefield, W.Va. – West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglas and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be available Monday, Sept. 8, to discuss the states’ oral rabies vaccine (ORV) bait distribution program. This year, approximately 1.2 million baits will be distributed across 19,880 kilometers square of central West Virginia in an effort to stop the spread of raccoon rabies.
The event is an opportunity for media representatives to interview experts on rabies, view one of the planes used in the ORV program, and see the fishmeal cube baits and coated sachets that are being distributed throughout West Virginia.
Wildlife Services (WS), a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, established the National Rabies Management Program in recognition of the changing scope of rabies. The program aims both to prevent the further spread of rabies by containing the raccoon variant and, eventually, to eliminate terrestrial rabies in the United States through an integrated program involving the use of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of wildlife.
Since 2001, WS has been working cooperatively with West Virginia’s Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Resources to distribute oral rabies vaccination baits portions of 26 West Virginia counties. West Virginia plays a crucial role in the vaccination zone that has been established stretching from Maine to
Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) flights are scheduled to begin from the Upshur County Airport, Buckhannon, WV on Sunday, September 7th. This year the program will be distributing an estimated 1.2 million baits over approximately 19,881 square km.
West Virginia counties include portions of: Barbour, Braxton, Brooke, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison, Lewis, Marion, Marshall, Mcdowell, Mercer, Monogalia, Nicholas, Ohio, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Taylor, Tyler, Upshur, Webster, Wetzel, and Wyoming.
For more information, visit www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/oral_rabies/index.sht
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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