The autumn campaign to vaccinate wild forest animals against rabies – a deadly disease that foxes themselves can transmit to humans either directly or indirectly, through the infection of domestic animals – has begun. In forests across the country – from the Carpathians to Polissya – gamekeepers, together with representatives of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, are setting out special bait.
This was reported by the state-owned enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’.
"Edible" vaccination
It is virtually impossible to catch and vaccinate wild animals, so foresters use edible bait. This is safe for the animals themselves, as well as for people and the environment.
The small briquettes smell of meat-and-bone meal, which makes them attractive to predators. However, hidden inside this ‘fragrant’ shell is a capsule containing the medication. The animal is drawn to the bait by its smell, eats it and gains immunity against a deadly disease.
A request to the public – please do not touch the bait
Foresters are appealing to Ukrainians not to interfere with the vaccination process. It’s nothing complicated – simply leave the vaccine briquettes alone. You should also avoid destroying them or moving them to another location, as gamekeepers specifically choose spots where wild animals are most likely to be found when placing the bait.
Scope of the programme
The largest-scale vaccination campaigns are taking place in the Carpathians. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, 152 staff members are involved; in the Zakarpattia region, 50; and in the Lviv region, 45.
Bait is also being laid out in Volyn, as well as in the Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi and Ternopil regions. Work will soon begin in the Zhytomyr region too, and at the end of September in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reported that wild birds in Australia are being vaccinated against bird flu. This continent was the last to be affected by the virus.
