Journal
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE DISEASES
Volume 44, Issue 4, Pages 946-964Publisher
WILDLIFE DISEASE ASSOC, INC
DOI: 10.7589/0090-3558-44.4.946
Keywords
Oral vaccination; Procyon lotor; rabid raccoon; rabies; raccoon; raccoon rabies; rabies control; vaccine baits; V-RG
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Funding
- Ontario Rabies Advisory Committee
- Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
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More than 3.6 million baits containing a recombinant vaccinia virus-rabies glycoprotein (V-RG) oral rabies vaccine were aerially or hand-distributed during 1999-2006 in an approximate 4,000-9,000 km(2) area of eastern Ontario, Canada, Lis part of a multitactic approach to control the raccoon variant of rabies. The efficacy of the program was assessed through the collection and testing of > 6,900 animals for bait acceptance and rabies virus-specific antibodies. Raccoon acceptance of rabies vaccine baits was significantly greater (71-83%) in areas baited at a density of 150 baits/km(2) 2 compared to areas baited at 75 baits/km(2) 2 (26-58%), and more raccoons consumed vaccine baits in areas baited with a flight line spacing of 0.75 km (45.3% [321/708]) than with a spacing of 1.5 km (33.8% [108/320]). In addition, greater numbers of raccoons consumed vaccine baits during a drop in September (52.7% [213/404]) as opposed to a June bait drop (34.6% [216/624]). Seropositivity rates for raccoons ranged between 7% and 28% in areas baited at 75/km(2) and 10% to 27% in areas baited at 150/km(2) with statistical differences varying among years and treatments. The last case of raccoon-variant rabies reported in Ontario was in September 2005. The control of raccoon rabies in Ontario has resulted in an estimated $6M to $10M Cdn annual savings in rabies-associated costs.
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