The flight crew controls the apparatus from the cockpit so that it does not drop bait over houses or other populated areas. The program's strategy is to fly in converging bands around the infected areas each year until the areas have been spread completely with baited vaccine and the disease controlled. The perimeters serve as buffer zones around the infected areas. Targeted animals generally have a limited range and will not move beyond the buffer zone, said Moore, who is West-Central Texas project director for the aerial drop. No cases of rabies have been reported in foxes or coyotes outside the perimeters since the program began, he added.
Planes drop baits over a quarter-mile wide swath.
They parallel the same path on the way back, moving over slightly to cover another quarter-mile area. The trips eventually result in an outer perimeter 20 miles wide where bait had been spread. January's South Texas flight dropped baits for coyotes and covered 21,000 square miles and parts of 29 counties. February's drop in West and Central Texas, aimed primarily at gray foxes, covered 20,000 square miles in 52 counties. More than 50 Texas Animal Damage Control Service employees have taken part in the aerial program.