Acceptance of baits, designed to carry oral rabies vaccines, by foxes in Britain

Abstract

The spread of classical rabies (RABV) in the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) within Europe has been reversed during the last few decades by the widespread use of vaccine baits. This approach has resulted in most of western Europe being essentially free of terrestrial rabies, and has been associated with significant increases in fox density. The few remaining foci of disease in western Europe are now situated within areas of increasing density of foxes. In Great Britain, rabies contingency planning is centred on the use of vaccine baits, following the successes in Europe. However, in Britain fox density in both rural and urban areas has generally been higher than in continental ‘rabies-endemic’ Europe. One consequence of a high fox density is that a greater proportion of the population needs to consume the vaccine baits and become immunised, to reduce the absolute density of susceptible animals and thus eradicate the disease. Therefore, bait uptake rates in Great Britain, in both rural and high-density urban areas, should be of interest in contingency planning for the control of future outbreaks of rabies in Europe. We report here on studies in Britain on the uptake of vaccine baits by foxes, and how this should influence both British and European rabies contingency planning.