Health officials urge caution after rabid raccoon found in South Hero
SOUTH HERO – Public health officials are urging residents in South Hero to take precautions against possible exposures to rabies after an infected raccoon was recently discovered in the Champlain Islands town.
According to the Vermont Dept. of Health, a raccoon recovered from South Hero earlier this month was confirmed to have been infected with rabies. The raccoon’s discovery noted by the health department is the first confirmed case of rabies involving a wild animal found in Grand Isle County this year.
Because wild animals travel together and interact with one another, Vermont health officials are warning that a rabid raccoon’s discovery in South Hero likely means that the rabies virus is now circulating among wild animals in South Hero and that there is now a greater risk of rabies exposure from local wildlife.
“All residents are urged to take steps to protect humans and domestic animals from rabies,” read a recent health department notice shared online by South Hero’s local health officer, Ashley Williams.
Rabies is a viral disease affecting the brain and nervous system that is typically fatal for people and animals. The virus can spread through bites or saliva from infected animals.
According to the Vermont Dept. of Health, the number of rabid animals identified annually in Vermont has continued to grow in recent years, with the largest numbers of confirmed cases typically appearing in nearby Chittenden County or in Orleans County in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
In all, according to public health officials, 46 wild animals have been recovered this year in Vermont with confirmed rabies infections. Nearly half of those animals were found in Orleans County alone, according to recent reporting from the Vermont Dept. of Health.
While officials in Vermont have historically distributed baited vaccination pellets for wildlife to help mitigate potential rabies outbreaks every summer, Vermont officials have, over the past four years, partnered with federal officials to organize an additional vaccine distribution every spring due to the increased prevalence of rabies in Vermont.
Vermont’s wildlife and agricultural agencies recently completed their annual August distribution for rabies vaccinations, dispersing the small, biodegradable pellets via aircraft and by hand in parts of Northern and Eastern Vermont.
The pellets, which carry an oral animal vaccine for rabies, are wrapped with a sweet-smelling bait to draw raccoons and skunks, two animals accounting for most of the rabies cases reported in Vermont.
At an individual level, health officials are encouraging people to avoid contact with wild animals and to report animals that are acting strangely to local animal control officials.
An animal infected with rabies does not always look rabid, according to Vermont health officials, and testing for a possible infection requires an animal’s euthanasia.
“Do not touch or pick up wild or stray animals… or try to make them into pets,” a health department notice read. “For their own sake, leave wildlife in the wild.”
People bitten by an animal are advised to wash their wound with soap and water, and contact a local health care provider. When a pet or farm animal is potentially exposed to a rabid animal, owners are encouraged to contact a veterinarian.
State law requires dogs and cats in Vermont to be vaccinated against rabies.
More information can be found online at www.healthvermont.gov/rabies