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USDA Is Airdropping Rabies Vaccines in 6 States This Month

November 20, 2025

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This undated electron microscope image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows rabies virions, dark and bullet-shaped, within an infected tissue sample. F. A. Murphy/CDC via AP, File

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is airdropping oral rabies vaccines in six states in October in a bid to stop the spread of the potentially deadly virus.

Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia be the recipients of the airdropped vaccines in October, according to a statement from the agency. The USDA did not provide a starting date for the process.

One project will cover areas in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and a small area in West Virginia to distribute 634,000 oral rabies vaccine baits via vehicles, airplanes, and helicopters, the USDA said. Another 410,000 of the baits will be distributed in western North Carolina and northern Georgia; 690,000 baits will be dropped in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee; and 718,000 baits will be distributed in parts of northeast and central Alabama.

Several other states, including parts of Pennsylvania, Maine, western New York, and Ohio started receiving the vaccines in August, said the USDA. Parts of Massachusetts started receiving vaccines in September.

Areas in several other states, including portions of Maine, western New York, Ohio, western Pennsylvania and other areas of West Virginia began receiving the vaccines in August.

“Wildlife rabies poses significant risks to domestic animals, such as livestock and pets,” Dr. Michael Watson, a USDA official involved in the program, said in a statement in August. “By reducing rabies in wildlife populations, we are safeguarding both human and animal health and decreasing the risk of disease spread, which would jeopardize the success [Animal and Plant Health Instpection Service] APHIS has achieved since 1995 in managing rabies.”

Officials said rabies is usually always fatal after symptoms appear but it can be prevented in people if medical attention is rendered immediately after exposure to the virus. But around 90 percent of reported rabies cases in the country are in wildlife.

Rabies is caused by a virus that invades the central nervous system and is usually fatal in animals and people. The number of rabies-related human deaths in the United States has declined from more than 100 annually in the early 1900s to fewer than five cases annually in recent years, officials say.

An estimated 60,000 Americans are treated each year after possible exposure to rabies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report released in 2022.

Health officials say all mammals are capable of contracting rabies, although most cases in the United States occur in wild skunks, bats, raccoons, foxes, and coyotes. Among domestic animals, cats have become the most common to be infected with the virus.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says that it is “because many cat owners do not vaccinate their cats, and cats can be exposed to rabid wildlife, either outdoors or when bats get into the house.”

“Rabies also occurs in dogs and cattle in significant numbers and, while not as common, has been diagnosed in horses, goats, sheep, swine, and ferrets,” the association’s website says.

Over the summer, health officials moved to alert hundreds of people in dozens of states and several countries who may have been exposed to rabies in bat-infested cabins in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park over the past few months.