Oral Rabies Vaccination of Small Indian Mongooses (Urva auropunctata) with ONRAB via Ultralite Baits

Authors

Are R. Berentsen, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, COFollow
Israel Leinbach, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services NWRCFollow
Mel J. Rivera-Rodriguez, USDA APHIS, Wildlife ServicesFollow
Amy T. Gilbert, USDA National Wildlife Research CenterFollow

ORCID IDs

Amy T. Gilbert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8256-0081

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

Viruses 2021, 13, 734.

doi:10.3390/v13050734

Comments

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

Abstract

The Ontario Rabies Vaccine (ONRAB) is a human adenovirus rabies glycoprotein recombinant oral vaccine immunogenic for small Indian mongooses when delivered by direct instillation into the oral cavity. We offered Ultralite baits containing ~1.8 mL 109.5 TCID50 ONRAB oral rabies vaccine to 18 mongooses, while 6 mongooses were offered identical baits in placebo form. We collected sera from individual mongooses at days 0, 14 and 30 post vaccination (pv) and quantified rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (RVNA) using the rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test, with titers greater than or equal to 0.1 IU/mL considered positive. All study subjects were RVNA negative prior to bait offering. Bait consumption was variable: all 6 sham and 13 of 18 (72%) treatment animals consumed/punctured the baits offered. By day 30 pv, RVNA were detected among 11 of 13 (84.6%) of treatment mongooses that consumed/punctured baits, whereas sham-vaccinated mongooses remained RVNA negative throughout the study. We conclude ONRAB is immunogenic for mongooses by Ultralite bait delivery, although the bait design may need further optimization.