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A few months ago, Emily Mullin was going through her email,

checking her inbox, deleting things,

when she saw a press release from the US Department of Agriculture, or USDA.

Now, as a science reporter, Emily gets a lot of PR emails and press releases,

but this one from the USDA Wildlife Services, Cotter Eye.

For one, it was about this rabies campaign,

and I was really intrigued because I didn't really realize that rabies was still a thing.

In the US, to be honest, it's something that I think is very feared,

but I've never heard of anybody being exposed to rabies.

And human cases of rabies are rare today.

In the early 1900s, more than 100 people died annually from rabies in the US.

By the end of that century, the number had dropped to one or two.

So why was this campaign Emily was reading about such a huge effort?

As she kept reading, she noticed it was specifically focusing on vaccinating raccoons,

an animal that has high rates of rabies.

And although she knew raccoons could be rabies carriers,

...