SYLVATIC RABIES

RABIES

DR. PWAVENO H. BAMAIYI SENIOR LECTURER FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA KELANTAN

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

SYLVATIC RABIES

Any mammal can get rabies

• Raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats

• Dogs, cats, cattle and ferrets

• Humans

Raccoons

Bats

Foxes

Skunks

Ground Hogs

Ferrets

• Many people have ferrets as pets in developed countries

• They should be vaccinated for rabies.

Mammals that are less likely to carry rabies

Animals that don’t carry rabies

Animals that don’t carry rabies

spill-over of rabies virus from dogs to wildlife

Symptomless rabies?

• A rabies recovered dog intermittently excreted the virus in its saliva for 305 days without showing clinical signs! (Baer, 2012).

Wild vs domestic dog

DISTRIBUTION OF SYLVATIC RABIES

Distribution of sylvatic rabies

• Common in North and South America

• Europe

• Parts of Africa

• Asia-Pacific: common in Australian wild life ( Australian bat lyssavirus occurs normally in both insectivorous and fruit-eating bats (flying foxes) from most mainland states)

Wildlife rabies in Russia (2000-2005, Kchadartsev et al., 2006)

• Wild animals consisted of~40% of total cases

• Case number increased in 4.3 times in 2000-2005

• 56 regions of Russia (from 72) reported about wildlife rabies

• 34% of all human rabies cases were connected with wild animals:

- foxes 17.4%

- wolves 9.8%

- raccoon dogs 5.4%

- badgers 1.1%

Sylvatic rabies in Asia

• Rabies can be found in dogs, bats, and other mammals in Brunei (CDC, 2015)

• Mongoose (Herpestes spp.), jackals (Canis aureus), foxes (Vulpes bengalensis) and wolves (Canis lupus) have been incriminated as wildlife reservoirs of rabies in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal

• The rabies virus isolated from a human rabies case was 100% identical to viruses isolated from two dogs and a mongoose in Nepal

• Isolated from fruit bats in Thailand

Kelantan at Thai border!

There is no report of sylvatic rabies in Malaysia

at the moment!

Flying bats

Can fly up to 80 Km a night!

Asymptomatic bats?

“the asymptomatic excretion of RABV in the saliva of experimentally infected vampire bats, which survived the challenge during at least 2 years of observation, was documented” (Aguilar-Setien A, Loza-Rubio E, Salas-Rojas M, et al. Salivary excretion of Rabies virus by healthy vampire bats. Epidemiol Infect. 2005;133:517–22)

“Only one lyssavirus, Mokola virus (MOKV), has never been isolated from bats to date”

(Kuzmin et al. 2011)

CONTROL OF SYLVATIC RABIES

Oral rabies vaccination and wildlife rabies in Russia

• Large scale ORV started in 1998 (Avilov et al., 2002)

• ORV is continuing till now

Rabies among wild animals

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The main objective problems on the way of oral rabies vaccination in Russia

• Very wide rabies affected territory

• Different target species

• Limited effect of water natural barriers in winter time

Natural reservoir and vectors of rabies virus in Russia

• Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

• Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

• Polar fox (Alopex lagopus)

• Steppe fox (Vulpes corsac)

• Wolf (Canis lupus)

• Jackal (Canis aurius)

• Badger (Meles meles)

Bat rabies

Raccoon rabies

Sylvatic Rabies in the USA

“ the most common source of human rabies in the United States is from bats”-CDC, 2011

Jeanna Giese

Zach was not so lucky!

http://zachjonesmemorial.com

PPT- 7

Rabies Cases

The vast majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes

Rabies in Animals

PPT- 8

Rabid Animals By Frequency

• Raccoons

• Skunks

• Bats

• Foxes

• Rodents & Lagomorphs

PPT- 15

Rabies Facts

• Approximately 120,000 animals or more are tested for rabies each year in the United States

• Approximately 6% are found to be rabid; the proportion of positive animals depends largely on the species of animal and ranges from <1% in domestic animals to >10% of wildlife species

Control of sylvatic rabies

• Oral rabies vaccines

• Vaccine baits

Baits can also be used for dogs

Commercial vaccine baits available

Considerations regarding:

Method of bait distribution (house to house, central places, wildlife model)

Baits attractiveness in local conditions (pilot studies)

Vaccine bait efficacy in local conditions (pilot studies)

Safety requirements for candidate vaccines

Assessment of vaccination efficacy : dog vaccination coverage in the field, monitoring rabies incidence

Mass vaccination

• Try to achieve 70% herd immunity

Monitoring and surveillance

Thank you!

References

1. www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=18&objID=1426648

2. Adedeji, A O., Eyarefe, O.D., Okonko, I.O., Ojezele, M.O., Amusan, T. A, Abubakar, M.J., 2010. Why is there still rabies in Nigeria? - A review of the current and future trends in the epidemiology, prevention, treatment, control and possible elimination of rabies. Br. J. Dairy Sci. 1, 10–25.

3. Florence Cliquet-Jacques Barrat OIE Global conference on Rabies control Assuring quality and sustainability of rabies dog vaccination programme: vaccination – rabies surveillance post vaccination monitoring

4. Gongal, G., Wright, A.E., 2011. Human Rabies in the WHO Southeast Asia Region: Forward Steps for Elimination. Adv. Prev. Med. 2011, 1–5. doi:10.4061/2011/383870

5. Kuzmin, I. V., Bozick, B., Guagliardo, S.A., Kunkel, R., Shak, J.R., Tong, S., Rupprecht, C.E., 2011. Bats, emerging infectious diseases, and the rabies paradigm revisited. Emerg. Health Threats J. 4, 1–17. doi:10.3402/ehtj.v4i0.7159

6. Robertson, K., Lumlertdacha, B., Franka, R., Petersen, B., Bhengsri, S., Henchaichon, S., Peruski, L.F., Baggett, H.C., Maloney, S. a, Rupprecht, C.E., 2011. Rabies-related knowledge and practices among persons at risk of bat exposures in Thailand. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 5, e1054. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001054

7. Wright, E., Hayman, D.T., Vaughan, A., Temperton, N.J., Wood, J.L., Cunningham, A.A., Suu-Ire, R., Weiss, R.A., Fooks, A.R., 2010. Virus neutralising activity of African fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) sera against emerging lyssaviruses. Virology 408, 183–189. doi:10.1016/j.virol.2010.09.014