Rabies

• HOUSTON, June 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Houston PetSet , a local nonprofit organization working to end Houston's homeless animal crisis, returned to the Baytown Community Center to provide vaccines and microchips for owned cats and dogs at no cost to their owners.
• This was their third large-scale community event of 2024, bringing the total number of pets served to nearly 2,500 to date.
• Houston PetSet is only able to provide these vital veterinary services free of charge through the generosity of local donors and businesses.
• Houston PetSet's next free community event will take place in Acres Homes on Saturday, October 12, 2024.

• They’ve now decided to freeze sperm from as many genetically diverse male African wild dogs as possible and use this to artificially inseminate female African wild dogs for the first time.
• Reproductive and molecular biologist Damien Paris explains why artificial breeding is the best and most economical way to ensure that genetically diverse wild dogs live on.

Why is the African wild dog in danger?

• They are highly efficient pack hunters but need large home ranges to survive and avoid competitors like lions.
• The problem is that most of the remaining habitats are so small and fragmented that they can’t support large populations anymore.
• Usually, when wild dogs are subadults (around two years old) they move far away and form their own pack.

How can genetic diversity help the African wild dog survive?

• Those diseases can spread rapidly among wild dogs and decimate a pack, which is about five to 20 dogs.
• In 2017, canine distemper virus completely wiped out 21 out of 22 packs of wild dogs in Laikipia County, Kenya in less than four weeks.
• We plan to use sperm freezing and artificial insemination to help distribute genetic diversity between isolated populations.

What conservation methods have been used before?

• To increase genetic diversity, African wild dogs have been translocated (moved) across South Africa since 1998.
• Over several weeks, they form a new genetically mixed pack that is released into the wild.
• A whole population of wild dogs could be lost with the next disease outbreak.

How will sperm freezing and artificial insemination help?

• Our back-up plan against disease outbreaks is to create a bank of African wild dog sperm from multiple males.
• Sperm frozen in liquid nitrogen tanks at very cold temperatures can last 50 or 100 years and still produce offspring.
• We recently improved the freezing technique so African wild dog sperm are now able to swim and survive for eight hours after being thawed.
• We plan to build a consortium so that we can have multiple sperm banks throughout South Africa as back-ups.

Will this be very expensive?

• Some recent modelling in other species found that the hybrid approach was between seven and 84 times cheaper than the natural breeding approach.
• This is because it needed 13-100 times fewer animals to maintain 90% genetic diversity in the population over a 100-year period.

Damien Boyd Bertrand Paul Paris receives funding from Morris Animal Foundation, Roger Willliams Park
Zoo and Fresno Chaffee Zoo. He is affiliated with James Cook University, the Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals, and is a Visiting Fellow of the Mammal Research Institute.

• Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN and NASDAQ: SNY) has today announced the launch of Verorab® (Sanofi Inactivated Rabies Vaccine) in the UK, an inactivated rabies vaccine indicated for pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis of rabies in all age groups.1
  This launch is based on extensive clinical data from over 13,000 individuals.1 Sanofi Inactivated Rabies Vaccine has been approved and widely used in more than 80 countries.2 It is estimated that between 41 and 70 million individuals have received the vaccine since its first licensure in May 1985, in France.2
  Rabies is nearly always fatal once symptoms appear, but can be preventable with vaccination3
  Each year, an estimated 59,000 people worldwide die from rabies.4 That’s one person every nine minutes of every day3, with approximately 95% of deaths occurring in Asia and Africa.3,4,5 Individuals travelling to these countries should be aware of the risk of rabies and take the appropriate precautionary measures.
• Rebecca Catterick, UK and Ireland Sanofi Vaccines General Manager, said:
  “Rabies is a fatal, travel-related vaccine-preventable disease.
• The availability of Verorab® in the UK provides an effective immunisation option for those travelling to high-risk countries, as well as a treatment for post-rabies exposure.”
  Joanna Lowry, Specialist Travel Nurse & Educator, said:
  “I am always surprised by the number of British travellers I meet who are unaware of the risk of rabies.
• Increasing awareness and sharing education on preventative measures is crucial to help reduce the possibility of this devastating disease.”
  Rabies is primarily transmitted by the bite, scratch, or lick of a rabid animal, 99% of which are by dogs, but can also be other wildlife, such as foxes or bats.6

• Oakland Zoo is caring for a female marmoset named Estrela, an illegally owned pet, after being seized by California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials.
• Oakland Zoo was contacted after San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo (other Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited partners) could not take in the marmoset due to the capacity concerns related to other WCN rescues they were involved with.
• Estrela will remain in the care of the Oakland Zoo and housed in their Veterinary Hospital until she has completed her quarantine period.
• For years, animals confiscated by officials at SFO, and the Port of Oakland have been brought to Oakland Zoo for treatment, care, and permanent sanctuary.