It will be raining rabies vaccines over Aroostook County starting this week.
About 450,000 oral vaccines will be dropped from the air between Wednesday and May 22, according to Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
That will be in addition to the annual fall rabies vaccine drop.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, which is partnering with the Maine CDC, is dropping the extra vaccine doses because of a spate of reports of rabid raccoons over the past year.
The vaccines are coated in fishmeal.
Humans and pets can’t get rabies from the vaccines, but Hammes advised people to not touch or move them.
Anyone who does come in contact with them should rinse the affected area with warm water and soap. Dogs that ingest multiple bait packs may get an upset stomach, but won’t face long-term health effects, according to Hammes.
Rabies can infect the nervous systems of humans and other animals, and it spreads mainly through the bites of infected animals.
It is almost fatal once symptoms develop.
As of May 11, there have been 11 confirmed rabies cases among raccoons, a gray fox, a bat and a goat across eight counties.
