Zero Endemic Cases of Wildlife Rabies (Classical Rabies Virus, RABV) in the European Union by 2020: An Achievable Goal

Abstract

The elimination of rabies transmitted by Classical Rabies Virus (RABV) in the European Union (EU) is now in sight. Scientific advances have made it possible to develop oral vaccination for wildlife by incorporating rabies vaccines in baits for foxes. At the start of the 1980s, aerial distribution of vaccine baits was tested and found to be a promising tool. The EU identified rabies elimination as a priority, and provided considerable financial and technical resources to the infected EU Member States, allowing regular and large-scale rabies eradication programs based on aerial vaccination. The EU also provides support to non-EU countries in its eastern and south eastern borders. The key elements of the rabies eradication programs are oral rabies vaccination (ORV), quality control of vaccines and control of their distribution, rabies surveillance and monitoring of the vaccination effectiveness. EU Member States and non-EU countries with EU funded eradication programs counted on the technical support of the rabies subgroup of the Task Force for monitoring disease eradication and of the EU Reference Laboratory (EURL) for rabies. In 2018, eight rabies cases induced by classical rabies virus RABV (six in wild animals and two in domestic animals) were detected in three EU Member States, representing a sharp decrease compared to the situation in 2010, where there were more than 1500 cases in nine EU Member States. The goal is to reach zero cases in wildlife and domestic animals in the EU by 2020, a target that now seems achievable.

Rabies control in wildlife: the golden jackal (Canis aureus) requests for attention – a case study

“…The immunisation was carried out by oral route of application with bait vaccines. Following the recommendation of the European Union, the bait density distributed on the vaccinated site was 20/km 2 (Maki et al, 2017;Robardet et al, 2019). Since that time, the carnivore fauna of southeastern Europe has been changed definitely.…”

Role of Oral Rabies Vaccines in the Elimination of Dog-Mediated Human Rabies Deaths

“…Several studies have shown that in areas with low dog accessibility, parenteral vaccination was either ineffective or inefficient, but ORV was able to achieve adequate coverage while remaining a cost-effective public health intervention (42,(45)(46)(47)(48). Although ORV has been used for >40 years in highincome countries to successfully control and eliminate rabies in wildlife (24,27), hesitancy to implement ORV as a component of mass dog vaccination campaigns has resulted in a dearth of evidence to argue for the integration, impact, and cost of these vaccines in the context of dog rabies control.…”

“…A great paradox exists in the field of global rabies elimination: oral rabies vaccination (ORV) is the main component of elimination of rabies from wildlife populations, which cause only modest human deaths (24)(25)(26)(27), whereas ORV is not used to complement parenteral vaccination for elimination of rabies in dog populations (28), which are responsible for more human deaths than any other single zoonotic pathogen. At present, parenteral vaccination is the only approach used for addressing dog-mediated rabies at-scale, despite frequent publications and field reports of the inadequacies of this approach among important subpopulations of susceptible dogs (Table 1) (39).…”

Prevention of human rabies: a challenge for the European Union and the European Economic Area

“…A gradual decrease in the total number of cases among this species was observed over the years. Since 2017, the overall yearly number of rabies cases has been below 10 and only four EU countries have reported cases: Lithuania, Romania, Poland and Hungary [11]. In addition, Norway reported the detection of rabies cases among Arctic foxes on the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen.…”

“…Oral rabies vaccination campaigns have been remarkably successful in controlling the infection in red foxes. In the EU/EEA in 2019, only a small number of animal cases occurred, all in eastern EU countries, and achieving elimination of rabies in mammals (no enzootic circulation of the virus and low number of imported cases) has been achieved by 2020 [ 11 ]. Between 2010 and 2019, the highest proportion of animal cases were found in red foxes ( Table 3 ).…”