MONTREAL - Quebec wildlife officials will strategically place vaccine-laced cookies just outside Montreal to create an artificial barrier to keep a virulent strain of raccoon rabies out of the city.

The latest vaccination campaign begins at the end of May, when officials will bait areas frequented by raccoons and skunks to create a 10-kilometre-wide belt along the city's south shore.

Teams will drop bait in hot spots and repeat the exercise in mid-August, when newborn raccoons born this month are able to chew the cookies.

"We will probably vaccinate between 70-75 per cent of the raccoons in this area this way," said Pierre Canac-Marquis, a spokesman for the Quebec's natural resources department.

Quebec officials will also concentrate on the area that was affected last year along the Quebec-Vermont border, air dropping bait in mid-August.

Rabies can infect and kill any mammal, including humans, though people rarely contract the disease.

Officials warn the province is about six or seven years away from being able to declare itself raccoon rabies-free as Ontario was able to do nine years after the disease first appeared.

The World Organization for Animal Health requires at least two years without a case for a region to declare itself rabies free.

"We're still aiming for the same objective, which is to eradicate raccoon rabies from Quebec," says Canac-Marquis.

"But since this is going to take a few years so we want to try to control the spread."

Last year, the province reported 66 cases of raccoon rabies in an area near St-Armand, Que., south of Montreal. Officials concentrated their plan of attack there last year.

The disease reached within 40 kilometres of Montreal last year.

Officials in Montreal have been briefed on a the worst-case scenario that rabies does reach the city. This particular strain of rabies is irksome in urban areas because of the threat it poses to common household pets, Marquis said.

"The problem with this one is that it can be transmitted to cats and dogs, and raccoons are in very close contact with these pets," Canac-Marquis said.

"The problem is not with the raccoons or skunks, our fear is that eventually it will be transmitted to a dog or to a cat and this is where the situation could become dangerous for humans."

Vermont, which is the source of Quebec's rabies problem, is reporting fewer cases thus far in 2008, 18 cases compared to 152 among raccoons and skunks in 2007.

"It's down quite a bit, but I suspect you'll see quite a bit between our border and Quebec," said Dr. Robert Johnson, state veterinarian for Vermont.

If there is evidence of a concentration of cases, vaccinations may be carried out on the spot, Canac-Marquis said.

"But we won't do like last year and euthanize animals on a large scale," Canac-Marquis said.

About 5,000 raccoons were euthanized last year in a five-kilometre radius near St-Armand.

In the middle of the affected area, St-Armand Mayor Real Pelletier says many residents have sent pets to be vaccinated.

"People were cautious, if they saw a wild animal approach with their fur looking like it came out of washer or a dryer for the 15th time and looked sick, they knew not to approach them," Pelletier said.

"Most of us have kids so we don't want the pets to come back with diseases, but it's also for the health of the animal," said Pelletier.

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