USDA dropping Georgia-made rabies vaccine out of planes along the East Coast

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Mike Beckman knows they’re hanging around his Gwinnett County home. He can hear them.

“It’s a weird sound. It’s almost like a screeching noise that they’re making,” Beckman said.

Coyotes are being spotted more often in neighborhoods in and around Dacula.

“The biggest concern with coyotes is if you see one out during the daytime. It shouldn’t be out walking around and (if they are) that animal is either injured, has distemper or they may be rabid,” Dr. Joanne Maki said.

Maki is with the Duluth-based pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, which has teamed up with the USDA.

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Every year, federal officials fly over several eastern states including parts of Georgia. They drop nearly 750,000 oral rabies vaccinations. It’s a liquid bait that coyotes and other wild critters will gobble up.

“The vaccine is inside and that’s the liquid. But on the outside is a wax and a really strong-smelling fish meal so it smells like dead fish,” Maki said.

Maki says cats don’t like the bait, but dogs do. But she says it won’t hurt them.

Organizers of the program say it’s protecting wildlife and human lives.

Beckman is all for it.

“It’ll save a lot of people from being bitten by rabid animals. You never want to approach one. If it’s coming toward you, run,” he said.

Yikes! DeKalb County neighborhood has chronic coyote problem A neighbor snapped a photo of coyotes in her backyard.

Cox Media Group