Vaccines and vaccination programs used to eradication and control of rabies in wildlife

Rabies is a fatal viral zoonosis of the central nervous system of mammals. Until recently, rabies was predominantly in domestic dogs, although outbreaks were reports in wildlife. The implementation of dog mass vaccination resulted in the disappearance of dog-mediated rabies in Europe and North America, but the disease unexpectedly re-emerged in wildlife. Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs in wildlife are highly effective in control and eradication the disease. After years of successful vaccination campaigns, many previously infected countries in Western, Central and Northern European have become free of rabies. All rabies vaccines used for wildlife immunization are derivatives of the original SAD strain. Currently, five vaccine strains are authorized in Europe and all are derivatives of the original SAD strain: Sad Bern, SAD B19, SAG2, GASGAS and V-RG vaccine (Vaccinia Recombinant Glycoprotein). In our paper, we described and analyzed the main characteristics of available vaccines from Europe market for oral vaccination of wild animals, taking into account the performance and the quality features. In Western Europe, rabies has been eliminated using oral vaccination with all available vaccines. Nevertheless, worries still exist related to the residual pathogenicity of attenuated live vaccines that could induce rabies in certain conditions.