This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Rabies is a commonly occurring zoonotic disease in the circumpolar Arctic with epizootics in Alaska occurring every 3-5 years. The disease is considered to be enzootic in fox populations in northern and western Alaska. Despite its presence in wild foxes cases of human rabies are quite rare with only three cases having been documented in Alaska, the last in 1943. There is considerable public health concern for this fatal disease, especially during epizootics when up to 75% of the animals sent for diagnosis were found to be positive for rabies virus. Quarantines around rural villages are not uncommon when rabid animals are found, and the petroleum industry has sponsored fox control programs in years when fox populations are high in and surrounding the oil field complexes in northern Alaska. Oral rabies vaccination programs have been shown to be effective for a variety of species, especially in North America and Europe. In anticipation of such programs in Alaska several oral rabies vaccines, SAD-BHK21, SAG1 and SAG2, have been evaluated in captive arctic foxes and a recombinant DNA vaccine (V-RG Raboral) is currently under investigation. Markers are typically included in vaccine baits to monitor uptake by the target population. The project proposed here is to evaluate the uptake of baits by arctic foxes using a blood marker, iophenoxic acid, which increases protein-bound iodine in blood. Placement of baits at den sites instead of widespread distribution of baits by aircraft, which is the usual approach in rural areas, will be evaluated. Uptake by 50% or more of the arctic fox population would strongly suggest that this approach would be efficacious in averting a rabies epizootic around villages and industrial sites. As resource development continues to expand in the Arctic, human encounters with rabid foxes will increase, especially so with global warming affecting the distribution of foxes. There has been a substantial amount of research already conducted at UAF during the past 25+ years on the ecology and behavior of arctic foxes in the wild and on oral rabies vaccines and blood markers in captive arctic foxes. This project proposes to expand research efforts into field evaluation of oral rabies vaccine programs developed elsewhere and tailoring them to complement the extensive knowledge gained in regard to arctic fox ecology and behavior in Alaska. Successful completion of this project will provide public health agencies with a tool to deal with rabies epizootics in Alaska and elsewhere in the circumpolar Arctic, thereby reducing human exposure to rabid foxes.
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