Management and modeling approaches for controlling raccoon rabies: The road to elimination

Abstract

Rabies is an ancient viral disease that significantly impacts human and animal health throughout the world. In the developing parts of the world, dog bites represent the highest risk of rabies infection to people, livestock, and other animals. However, in North America, where several rabies virus variants currently circulate in wildlife, human contact with the raccoon rabies variant leads to the highest per capita population administration of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) annually. Previous rabies variant elimination in raccoons (Canada), foxes (Europe), and dogs and coyotes (United States) demonstrates that elimination of the raccoon variant from the eastern US is feasible, given an understanding of rabies control costs and benefits and the availability of proper tools. Also critical is a cooperatively produced strategic plan that emphasizes collaborative rabies management among agencies and organizations at the landscape scale. Common management strategies, alone or as part of an integrated approach, include the following: oral rabies vaccination (ORV), trap-vaccinate-release (TVR), and local population reduction. As a complement, mathematical and statistical modeling approaches can guide intervention planning, such as through contact networks, circuit theory, individual-based modeling, and others, which can be used to better understand and predict rabies dynamics through simulated interactions among the host, virus, environment, and control strategy. Strategies derived from this ecological lens can then be optimized to produce a management plan that balances the ecological needs and program financial resources. This paper discusses the management and modeling strategies that are currently used, or have been used in the past, and provides a platform of options for consideration while developing raccoon rabies virus elimination strategies in the US.

Not all surveillance data are created equal—A multi‐method dynamic occupancy approach to determine rabies elimination from wildlife

“…Raccoon variant RABV is enzootic in raccoon populations along the east coast of the United States (Elmore et al, ). The United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services (WS) and National Rabies Management Program (NRMP; cumulatively hereafter generally referred to as NRMP), has been conducting ORV focused on preventing the spread of and eventually eliminating raccoon RABV from the United States.…”

“…ORV strategies have been used to eliminate RABV from red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) across large landscapes in Europe (Freuling et al, ; Müller et al, ), as well as a dog RABV variant from coyotes ( Canis latrans ) in the United States (Velasco‐Villa et al, ). Since the mid‐1990s, ORV has been used to work towards the elimination of and to prevent the spread of RABV in raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) in the eastern United States (Elmore et al, ). Surveillance is a key component of effective ORV and other disease management programmes, and is required to assess programme impact and disease elimination status (Cliquet et al, ; Freuling et al, ).…”

Current Challenges of Preventive Vaccination Against Rabies

“…Одна из мер борьбы с безнадзорными животными, прежде всего с собаками, -массовое уничтожение безнадзорных собак, которую широко поддерживали ВОЗ и МЭБ (Международное эпизоотологическое бюро). Однако с течением времени стало очевидным, что выбранная стратегия массового уничтожения безнадзорных собак в качестве контроля распространения бешенства оказалась провальной 7 .…”

“…Многолетний анализ случаев смерти людей от гидрофобии в процессе или после полного курса специфического лечения в поисках возможных причин неудачного лечения позволил нам определить позиции ВОЗ и Российской Федерации по проблеме оказания антирабической помощи населению, особенно в части применения антирабических препаратов 19 [7,9]. С удовлетворением можно отметить, что существующая в России практика применения антирабических препаратов в целом соответствует рекомендациям ВОЗ -местная обработка раны и, в зависимости от категории и тяжести укуса, курс вакцинации либо только вакциной, либо только комбинированный курс антирабическим иммуноглобулином и вакциной.…”

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“…It is much more likely that the sweeping patterns set up during the disease's initial expansion are being recovered, while the stochastic and short-term dynamics of local movements are too transient to affect detectable phylogeographic changes (Carroll et al 2007;Holmes 2004). Raccoon rabies control efforts that rely on landscape variables to assist in restraining viral movement (Elmore et al 2017;Russell et al 2005) will potentially not be applicable to systems such as this, and alternative methods of control will be necessary.…”