As part of ongoing efforts to reduce transmission of the disease, more than 300,000 doses of rabies vaccine bait will be distributed throughout Allegheny County by the end of August.

Over the past week, county staff and volunteers have been walking or driving through residential areas, placing oral vaccines where raccoons are likely to find them but pets and people are not.

“We don’t throw it on anyone’s front yard. We don’t throw it on a school property, on a sidewalk or anything like that,” said Jamie Sokol, who coordinates the Allegheny County Health Department’s bait program. “So they’re placed very strategically. They’re in wooded areas, sewers and things like that.”

Several types of vaccine bait are used. The cans distributed in central Allegheny County may look like small green ravioli or a ketchup packet coated in fish meal or a sweet-smelling, waxy substance. Each bait contains a liquid vaccine that, once digested, gives the raccoon immunity to rabies.

“Raccoons will eat anything, so you really have to attract them with scent,” says Brian Zahuranic, a rabies biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Service who has worked with Allegheny and other counties on this project for more than 20 years.

Most vaccines are used within five days to two weeks after administration.

Allegheny County is one of the westernmost places where raccoon rabies is present, and Sokol noted that makes the area an important boundary to protect. The program is an effort to “make sure that the coverage in our county is extremely good so that we hold that boundary and raccoons and the rabies variant don’t spread west,” she said.

Later in the month, residents could see low-flying, slow-moving helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping additional doses in less populated areas of the county.

Although the bait poses no danger to humans or pets, Zahuranic warned residents to avoid it if possible.

“Just kick them into the weeds and hopefully they’ll be gone in about a week and everyone will be happier and healthier,” he said.

If the bait is in a location where pets or children could reach it, county officials recommend picking it up with a glove or plastic bag before throwing it into deeper cover.

The baits pose no long-term health risks to domestic dogs and cats, but eating multiple doses can cause stomach upset. If a pet gets hold of a bait, do not try to remove it from its mouth, as it could bite people or expose them to the vaccine. Contact a veterinarian if illness persists.

People cannot get rabies from the vaccine, but they could experience skin irritation or infection. Residents who come into contact with the bait or the liquid vaccine it contains should wash their hands and any other exposed skin with soap and water. If a rash occurs, contact a doctor immediately.

“Most of the animal rabies cases we report in Allegheny County come from wild animals, primarily raccoons. Anything we can do to reduce rabies in our raccoon population is a benefit to the county’s overall public health,” ACHD Acting Director Dr. Barbara Nightingale said in a statement. “The raccoon rabies vaccination program reduces human exposure to the virus and associated medical costs, and protects pets from additional vaccinations, quarantine, and potentially the need for euthanasia.”

The bait display will continue until August 30th.