Life Sciences Commons^™

Comparison Of A Micro-Neutralization Test With The Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test For Measuring Rabies Virus Neutralizing Antibodies, Todd G. Smith, Amy T. Gilbert

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT) is routinely used in the United States to measure rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (rVNA). RFFIT has a long history of reproducible and reliable results. The test has been modified over the years to use smaller volumes of reagents and samples, but requires a 50 μL minimum volume of test serum. To conduct pathogenesis studies, small laboratory animals such as mice are regularly tested for rVNA, but the minimum volume for a standard RFFIT may be impossible to obtain, particularly in scenarios of repeated sampling. To address this problem, a micro-neutralization test was developed …

The Impact Of Poverty On Dog Ownership And Access To Canine Rabies Vaccination: Results From A Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Survey, Uganda 2013, Ryan M. Wallace, Jason Mehal, Yoshinori Nakazawa, Sergio Recuenco, Barnabas Bakamutumaho, Modupe Osinubi, Victor Tugumizemu, Jesse D. Blanton, Amy T. Gilbert, Joseph Wamala

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background: Rabies is a neglected disease despite being responsible for more human deaths than any other zoonosis. A lack of adequate human and dog surveillance, resulting in low prioritization, is often blamed for this paradox. Estimation methods are often employed to describe the rabies burden when surveillance data are not available, however these figures are rarely based on country-specific data.

Methods: In 2013 a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey was conducted in Uganda to understand dog population, rabies vaccination, and human rabies risk factors and improve in-country and regional rabies burden estimates. Poisson and multi-level logistic regression techniques were conducted …

Rabies Virus Antibodies From Oral Vaccination As A Correlate Of Protection Against Lethal Infection In Wildlife, Susan M. Moore, Amy Gilbert, Ad Vos, Conrad M. Freuling, Christine K. Ellis, Jeannette Kliemt, Thomas Müller

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Both cell-mediated and humoral immune effectors are important in combating rabies infection, although the humoral response receives greater attention regarding rabies prevention. The principle of preventive vaccination has been adopted for strategies of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of wildlife reservoir populations for decades to control circulation of rabies virus in free-ranging hosts. There remains much debate about the levels of rabies antibodies (and the assays to measure them) that confer resistance to rabies virus. In this paper, data from published literature and our own unpublished animal studies on the induction of rabies binding and neutralizing antibodies following oral immunization of …

Ecological Potential For Rabies Virus Transmission Via Scavenging Of Dead Bats By Mesocarnivores, Tad C. Theimer, Annie C. Dyer, Brian W. Keeley, Amy T. Gilbert, David L. Bergman

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Multiple species of bats are reservoirs of rabies virus in the Americas and are occasionally the source of spillover infections into mesocarnivore species. Although rabies transmission generally is assumed to occur via bite, laboratory studies have demonstrated the potential for rabies transmission via ingestion of rabid animals. We investigated the ecological potential for this mode of transmission by assessing mesocarnivore scavenging behavior of dead bats in suburban habitats of Flagstaff, Arizona, US. In autumn 2013, summer 2014, and autumn 2015, we placed 104 rabies-negative bat carcasses either near buildings, in wildland areas, or in residential yards and then monitored them …

Towards Canine Rabies Elimination In Cebu, Philippines: Assessment Of Health Economic Data, L. M. Miranda, M. E. Miranda, B. Hatch, R. Deray, S. A. Shwiff, M. C. Roces, C. E. Rupprecht

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rabies is endemic in the Philippines. In 2010, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a canine rabies elimination project was initiated in the Philippine Archipelago of Visayan. We conducted an analysis of dog vaccination and human PEP costs for dog bite patients in a highly urbanized area and a low-income rural municipality in Cebu Province, Philippines, from 2010 to 2012. Our findings indicated that eliminating rabies in dogs through mass vaccination is more cost-effective than treating rabies exposures in humans. The average costs (in USD) per human life saved through PEP were $1620.28 in Cebu City and …

Den Use And Heterothermy During Winter In Free-Living, Suburban Striped Skunks, Tad C. Theimer, Cory T. Williams, Shylo R. Johnson, Amy T. Gilbert, David L. Bergman, C. Loren Buck

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Many mammals use heterothermy to meet challenges of reduced food availability and low temperatures, but little is known about the prevalence of heterothermy in wild mesocarnivores. We monitored body temperature (T_b) in free-living striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) through winter 2015–2016 in suburban Flagstaff, Arizona, a high-elevation site that experiences temperate winters. Subcutaneous T_b and heterothermy index (HI) were significantly affected by ambient temperature, and varied significantly across 7 skunks in midwinter. Twenty-one of 36 (58%) unique diurnal dens used by skunks were associated with human structures, and although females were found in dens under houses …