Beginning October 5th, the Tennessee Department of Health is working with the United States Department of Agriculture to help prevent rabies by distributing oral rabies vaccine for wild raccoons along Tennessee’s borders with Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
October 11th through October 17th oral rabies vaccine baits will be distributed by low-flying airplanes and helicopter in Bledsoe, Bradley, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.
This is the 24th year Tennessee has participated in baiting with rabies vaccine to slow and possibly halt the spread of raccoon rabies. There have been zero documented cases of raccoon variant rabies in Tennessee this year.
For more information on rabies prevention or the oral rabies vaccine program, call the USDA Wildlife Services toll-free rabies line at 866-487-3297 or the Tennessee Department of Health at 615-741-7247. You may also find rabies information on the USDA website.