Quebec plans to spread rabies vaccine baits from airplanes as part of its effort to curb the disease in raccoons, according to CityNews Montreal. The outlet reported the plan on Friday, September 18, 2026.
The approach involves dropping the baits over affected areas so that raccoons consume them and build immunity, CityNews Montreal reports. Distributing the doses by aircraft allows authorities to reach terrain that would be difficult to cover on foot or by vehicle.
Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the nervous system and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. In wildlife populations, it can spread through bites and other direct contact between animals. Raccoons are among the species that can carry and transmit the virus, which makes controlling it in their populations a public health concern as well as a wildlife management issue.
Vaccinating wild animals through oral baits is an established technique in disease control, though the material provided by CityNews Montreal does not detail how many baits will be dropped, which regions are targeted, or the timing of the flights. Those specifics were not included in the reporting.
What to watch next: whether Quebec releases further details on the areas covered by the aerial drops and how the province measures the program's effect on raccoon rabies cases.