Flights will resume tomorrow, weather permitting. Bright yellow planes from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources will lift off from Alice International Airport loaded with small baits containing a concealed packet of vaccine to immunize coyotes against rabies. Some 1.5 million baits will be dropped over 21,000 square miles of South Texas and will cover portions of 29 counties. This year's airdrop follows similar TDH airdrops in early 1995 and 1996 and is part of a five to seven year plan to first contain and then eliminate the canine strain of rabies in South Texas.
Coyotes are the primary hosts for the deadly virus.
The South Texas rabies epizootic, or epidemic in animals, began in 1988 in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico border and has spread to 20 other counties. Since 1988 some 693 cases of canine rabies in animals have been reported in South Texas. The epizootic had been moving northward at a rate of 45 miles per year and was threatening to invade San Antonio and other heavily-populated areas. In the first air attack in 1995, baits were dropped along a 40-mile wide band along the northern edge of the epizootic area. Last year the drop zone band was moved southward.