Immunization of the Wildlife Population Against Rabies

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Importance of Immunization
Previous Attempts
Contemporary Efforts
Results Across the Globe
Potential Alternative
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Rabies is a disease of a viral nature that occurs after a bite of an infected animal. It is characterized by significant damage to the nervous system and most commonly leads to a fatal outcome. Because of the severity of impairment, rabies is a critical public health topic. Most people and pets get infected by wild animals and street dogs. There have been numerous attempts to control the spread of the disease in wildlife. Several decades ago, methods were harsh but did not result in notable advancements. Today, however, health professionals take a different approach, one which does not violate animal rights while reducing the chance of the spread significantly. This paper will discuss the efficacy of current methods and how a local government could immunize the wildlife population against rabies.

Importance of Immunization

There are no known methods of treatment after the onset of the disease. The only way of reducing the number of casualties is by preventing the disease. Vaccination after potential exposure to the virus reduces the chance of becoming infected significantly (Baker et al., 2019). Therefore, millions of people get vaccinated after a possible exposure in the form of an animal bite (Moore et al., 2017). However, rabies is considered to be a neglected topic in healthcare and thousands of people die annually because they fail to immunize themselves against the disease. In the United States, most cases of rabies infection are attributed to dog bites (Gilbert et al., 2018).

Because the majority of households own a dog, the chance of becoming infected is high. Therefore, it is critical for people to immunize themselves and for local governments to control the spread of the disease in wildlife.

Previous Attempts

First attempts to manage wildlife rabies consisted of primitive measures. In summary, local governments would try to reduce the number of wild animals in the area. These measures included targeted hunting, poisoning, and trapping (Maki et al., 2017). However, the efficacy of these methods was compromised by the fact that it is not possible to hunt down all animals without damaging biodiversity and without incurring high costs, including human fatalities. Also, the reduction of the wildlife population was paralleled with controversies and public unrest. Many people were concerned with animal rights and the damage that such methods might impose on the local ecosystem (Maki et al., 2017). Therefore, there was a need for a more efficient and ethical means of battling the spread of rabies. Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) was proposed as a solution and is widely used by many local governments today.

Contemporary Efforts

Capturing wild animals one by one and immunizing them by needle injection is not possible due to limited human resources and a high number of animals; therefore, oral immunization was proposed. The idea is that animals are exposed to vaccination through special baits that contain the vaccine. After testing this method on caged animals, the first field trial took place in Switzerland, in 1978, with the use of chicken head baits that were injected with the vaccine based on Street Alabama Dufferin (Maki et al., 2017). Today, a widely used product is RABORAL V-RG – it is one of only two vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (Maki et al., 2017). This product is sold only to government agencies that plan to conduct a rabies control program.

Results Across the Globe

RABORAL V-RG has been used in numerous countries across the globe, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United States, and Canada. The efficacy of the method is shown by significant achievements in the reduction of the number of rabies cases among the wildlife population. For instance, the number of animal rabies cases in France was more than 4000 in 1989 (Maki et al., 2017). Since the start of the annual use of RABORAL V-RG, that number has dropped to a negligent value (Maki et al., 2017). In the United States, the results are similar – the product has shown that such a method is an effective means of wildlife rabies control.

Potential Alternative

While ground dispersion of oral vaccine has proved itself as an effective method, ORV needs significant human effort to target specific populations of mammals. An alternative way that can be considered in the future is the delivery of the vaccine through water reservoirs from which animals consume water. This approach, however, will require a vaccine that does not harm water habitat and humans that may directly or indirectly drink this water. With the advancements in bioengineering, the possibility of such a vaccine being invented in the future is high.

Conclusion

Rabies is a viral infection that poses a significant threat to pets and humans. It primarily spreads within populations of wild animals and may come to humans from pets that were bitten by infected bats, racoons, foxes, and other mammals. To maintain the spread of rabies at low levels, many actions have been undertaken by governments. Initially, people decreased the number of rabies cases by reducing the number of wild animals. Today, however, oral rabies vaccination is used. One of the leading products is RABORAL V-RG, which is primarily delivered via baits. With advancements in science, dispersion through water may become a new and more effective way of wildlife rabies control.

References

Baker, L., Matthiopoulos, J., Müller, T., Freuling, C., & Hampson, K. (2019). Optimizing spatial and seasonal deployment of vaccination campaigns to eliminate wildlife rabies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 374(1776), 1-10.

Gilbert, A., Johnson, S., Walker, N., Wickham, C., Beath, A., & VerCauteren, K. (2018). Efficacy of Ontario Rabies Vaccine Baits (ONRAB) against rabies infection in raccoons. Vaccine, 36(32), 4919-4926.

Maki, J., Guiot, A. L., Aubert, M., Brochier, B., Cliquet, F., Hanlon, C. A., King, R., Oertli, E.H., Rupprecht, C.E., Schumacher, C., Slate, D., Yakobson, B., Wohlers, A., & Lankau, E.W. (2017). Oral vaccination of wildlife using a vaccinia–rabies-glycoprotein recombinant virus vaccine (RABORAL V-RG®): A global review. Veterinary Research, 48(1), 1-26.

Moore, S. M., Gilbert, A., Vos, A., Freuling, C. M., Ellis, C., Kliemt, J., & Müller, T. (2017). Rabies virus antibodies from oral vaccination as a correlate of protection against lethal infection in wildlife. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 2(31), 1-20.

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