Trap-Vaccinate-Release Program to Control Raccoon Rabies, New York, USA

Abstract

In 2009, an outbreak of raccoon rabies in Central Park in New York City, New York, USA, infected 133 raccoons. Five persons and 2 dogs were exposed but did not become infected. A trap-vaccinate-release program vaccinated ≈500 raccoons and contributed to the end of the epizootic.

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

“…In this case, rapid-response TVR likely prevented the virus from becoming enzootic in the Central Park raccoon population [66]. TVR was also used in an integrated point infection control (PIC) strategy in which raccoon rabies was detected across the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, Canada [71].…”

“…TVR is a resource-intensive management tool that uses parenteral vaccination to boost population immunity in emergency situations or where ORV baiting might not be feasible, such as in densely human-populated urban areas [ 65 , 24 , 66 ] or for skunks [ 24 ]. ONRAB protected captive skunks from rabies in an efficacy study [ 67 ] and also in a high density field application that eliminated the arctic fox variant from free-ranging skunks in Ontario [ 43 ].…”

“…However, results from other studies are contradictory because free-ranging skunks still demonstrate low population immunity in response to more commonly used ORV bait application densities ( Table 1 ) [ 24 , 50 , 51 , 68 ], which complicates management efforts because skunks are susceptible to spillover of raccoon rabies [ 11 ]. TVR is generally used to target animals in small areas (e.g., parks and urban neighborhoods) [ 69 , 70 , 66 ], but it is too labor intensive and expensive for broad-scale application [ 71 ]. This method is also used in contingency actions by the NRMP in response to ORV-zone breaches or threats of rabies spreading beyond existing zones [ 72 ].…”

“…In Central Park, New York, US, TVR was used to control an outbreak of raccoon rabies where ORV baiting was deemed infeasible, and local population reduction was publicly opposed [ 66 ]. In this case, rapid-response TVR likely prevented the virus from becoming enzootic in the Central Park raccoon population [ 66 ].…”

Rabies in a Dog Imported from Egypt with a Falsified Rabies Vaccination Certificate — Virginia, 2015

“…Besides oral vaccination, strategic trapping of wild carnivores and releasing them after parenteral vaccination (trap-vaccinate-release) has been used with apparent success in some areas of North America, primarily for skunks and raccoons (46,47).…”