Rabies Vaccine Operation Targets Raccoons and Skunks in Montreal Parks

Teams of workers will be spreading sweet-smelling baits containing a rabies vaccine through Montreal’s parks in the coming weeks, as the province battles the biggest outbreak of raccoon rabies in its history. Marianne Gagnier, a biologist with the province’s Environment Department, says Montreal is the final stop of a vaccine blitz that has seen more than 800,000 vaccine baits distributed in more than 110 communities throughout the Estrie, Montérégie and Centre-du-Québec regions to the south and east of the city. “The goal of this vaccination is to immunize raccoons against rabies, but it’s ultimately to protect human health,” she said Wednesday in a phone interview....