The ADC program continues to play an active role in 
reducing the spread of rabies in Vermont and Texas. The 
ADC rabies information hotline in Vermont, established to 
address public concerns regarding the northward spread of 
the mid-Atlantic strain of raccoon rabies, completed its 
fourth year of operation. The 1-800 rabies information 
hotline provides service to the public 7 days a week. In 
Texas, ADC personnel assisted the Texas Department of 
Health (TDH) in two oral rabies vaccination projects 
involving bait drops. TDH was the lead agency in this effort, 
which involved aerial distribution of 2.5 million vaccine latent 
baits over 41,000 square miles. The baits were used to 
battle both the canine rabies outbreaks in south Texas and 
the gray fox rabies outbreaks in central and southwest 
Texas. Afterwards during 1996, the south Texas canine 
rabies strain of the virus did not occur north of the northern 
boundary of the vaccine bait drops. 
ADC specialists assisted city employees in Durant, OK, in 
moving about 100,000 blackbirds and starlings from a 
roosting site in a residential/business area. Local business 
owners and residents complained of a strong odor and noise 
when the birds returned to the roost each night. Heaith 
hazards and loss of business were also cited as problems 
created by the birds. ADC personnel used pyrotechnics and 
other frightening tactics to scare the birds to another 
location, where their presence will have less impact on the 
community. 
During 1996, the Cedar Lakes Conference Center, operated 
by the West Virginia Department of Education, requested 
that ADC help with sanitation and nuisance problems 
caused by 400 resident Canada geese. Guests complained 
about goose droppings on sidewalks, athletic fields, and 
other public-use areas. ADC developed and implemented a 
longrange integrated harassment plan that greatly reduced 
the conflicts by dispersing the geese to more suitable areas. 
In early 1996, ADC officials in Montana assisted APHIS 
Veterinary Services personnel in collecting coyotes for 
tuberculosis testing. This project was a followup to an 
earlier one in which both coyotes and deer tested positive 
for tuberculosis. The information gained from this round of 
testing will be used to develop management plans to protect 
livestock from potential exposure to tuberculosis. 
In Arizona, ADC personnel have been providing continuing 
service to the Arizona Department of Human Health 
Services in monitoring pneumonic plague. In 1996, ADC 
personnel collected blood samples from various kinds of wild 
animals in the Flagstaff area to help map the extent of the 
disease. This activity was a direct response to the death of 
a local man who had contracted pneumonic plague. As a 
result of the work of the ADC specialists, the plague has 
been identified near the Blue Range in eastern Arizona, an 
area previously not known to host the disease. 
14/ADC Program Highlights, 1996 
After three rabies-positive bat carcasses were found inside a 
Murphysboro, IL, church during late summer, the Illinois 
Department of Public Health notified ADC and issued a 
public health order requiring the church to eliminate the bat 
colony in the church attic. ADC installed bat funnels at 
entrances into the attic, captured the remaining 12 bats, and 
sent them to the health department for rabies testing. 
Contractors who had undergone pre-exposure rabies 
treatment then closed the attic entrances to prevent other 
bats from returning, thus ending the problem. 
Airports 
Around airports, birds and mammals present a threat to 
public safety when they collide or get sucked into engines. 
As a result, U.S. aviation regulations (Title 14, Code of 
Federal Regulations, Part 139) require airports experiencing 
wildlife—aircraft conflicts to develop and implement wildlife 
management plans. 
Because most airport employees lack the technical expertise 
to identify the causes of wildlife hazards, FAA and ADC 
entered into a cooperative agreement in 1989 to resolve 
wildlife hazards at airports. At the request of either FAA or 
airport management, ADC specialists provide technical and/ 
or operational assistance to reduce or control wildlife 
hazards to aircraft. During 1996, ADC personnel provided 
such assistance to hundreds of airports throughout the 
United States. ADC also conducts an agency-developed 
training program for airport managers and other airport 
employees regarding bird identification and available control 
methods. (ADC provides the same service to the U.S. Air 
Force as well.) 
