Development of baits to deliver oral rabies vaccine to raccoons in Ontario.

During 1993, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Rabies Research Unit, conducted experiments to develop a bait that would be attractive to raccoons (Procyon lotor) and serve as a vehicle to deliver oral rabies vaccine to that species. Testing of six candidate baits on captive and wild raccoons revealed that the best baits in terms of attractiveness to raccoons were a sugar-vanilla bait and a cheese powder bait. Further testing of those two baits containing miniature radio-transmitters indicated there was no preference between the baits, with respect to acceptance by raccoons; however, as there were fewer problems in mass producing the sugar-vanilla bait, it was selected for larger scale experiments.