State health officials are partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prevent the spread of rabies.
Starting this month, Wildlife Services will drop about 600,000 baits containing oral rabies vaccines to raccoons across Western North Carolina, including Watauga and Ashe counties.
State researchers found that raccoons were the animal with the highest number of positive cases last year.
The goal of the vaccine program is to prevent them from spreading the virus to humans, pets and other wildlife — especially to the west of the Appalachian Mountains where raccoon rabies doesn’t exist. The disease is almost always fatal for mammals once symptoms develop.
The baits will be distributed by hand, helicopter and plane and use fishmeal to attract the raccoons.
Officials say the baits will not harm pets.