William Martin and colleagues report on their stakeholder meetings that reviewed the health risks of household air pollution and cookstoves, and identified research priorities in seven key areas. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary

Laboratory-based surveillance is integral for rabies prevention, control and management efforts. While the DFA is the gold standard for rabies diagnosis, there is a need to validate additional diagnostic techniques to improve rabies surveillance, particularly in developing countries. Here, we present a standard protocol for the DRIT as an alternative, laboratory or field-based testing option that uses light microscopy as compared to the DFA. Touch impressions of brain tissue collected from suspect animals are fixed in 10% buffered formalin. The DRIT uses rabies virusspecific monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies (conjugated to biotin), a streptavidin-peroxidase enzyme, and a chromogen reporter (such as acetyl 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole) to detect viral inclusions within infected tissue. In approximately 1 h, a brain tissue sample can be tested and interpreted by the DRIT. Evaluation of suspect animal brains tested from a variety of species in North America, Asia, Africa, and Europe have illustrated high sensitivity and specificity by the DRIT approaching 100% with results compared to DFA. Since 2005, the United States Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services (USDA WS) program has conducted large-scale enhanced rabies surveillance efforts using the DRIT to test >94,000 samples collected from wildlife in strategic rabies management areas. The DRIT provides a powerful, economical tool for rabies diagnosis that can be used by laboratorians and field biologists to improve current rabies surveillance, prevention and control programs globally.

No abstract

Seroprevalence of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (rVNA) in raccoons (Procyon lotor) following oral rabies vaccination (ORV) with RABORAL V-RG 1 in the United States has annually averaged 30% since 1997, a level that is unlikely to successfully interrupt rabies transmission in raccoon populations. A longitudinal ORV zone is maintained in the eastern United States with raccoon variant rabies established east of the zone but absent to the west. However, questions remain regarding the effect of the bait application strategy towards achieving optimal population immunity. We estimated the number of ORV baits/km 2 of raccoon home range and calculated rVNA seroprevalence following 2 ORV baiting strategies: cluster baiting ( 10 baits dropped at a time) via helicopter and hand distribution of individual baits at regular intervals along roads and trails in suburban Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, during fall 2013 and 2014. We applied baits at 75 baits/km 2 under both strategies. We established 6 1-km 2 cells in each treatment area, and fitted 2 raccoons with global positioning system collars in each cell. We trapped and sampled 25 raccoons in each study cell pre-and post-ORV application for rVNA analysis. Overall raccoon home range and core area estimates were 80.7 ha and 17.5 ha, respectively (n ¼ 36). Average bait application for home ranges (n ¼ 32 home ranges that received bait) was 80.9 baits/km 2 for helicopter baiting and 63.6 baits/km 2 for hand baiting sites. Average bait application for core areas was 104.7 baits/km 2 for helicopter baiting and 69.2 baits/ km 2 for hand baiting sites. All home ranges were baited in both treatment areas, whereas 10/18 and 13/14 core areas were baited in the helicopter and hand distribution sites, respectively. Overall, helicopter cluster ORV delivered more baits/km 2 of raccoon home range than hand distribution but was less effective in reaching core areas. Seroprevalence did not change as a function of baiting strategy (helicopter vs. hand baiting). The average overall increase in seroprevalence following ORV application was 8.9%. Evaluation of additional strategies are needed because both methods failed to achieve herd immunity necessary to disrupt rabies transmission in raccoons. Ó