Initiative: WS human health/safety general the wadsworth center (WC) rabies laboratory will perform testing to support the USDA wildlife services (USDA-WS) oral rabies vaccination (ORV) campaign for…

Under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS), Health Research, Inc. Wadsworth Center Division will receive $190,000 to conduct rabies testing and surveillance to support USDA Wildlife Services' Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) campaign. The Wadsworth Center will perform laboratory testing on wildlife samples to monitor the spread of rabies and the effectiveness of the ORV program, which distributes rabies vaccine baits in targeted areas to prevent the disease's transmission. This work is funded through the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services program (CFDA 10.028), which supports a range of activities to reduce wildlife-related damage and control zoonotic diseases. The Wadsworth Center will provide critical laboratory services and data to assist USDA Wildlife Services' efforts to control and eliminate rabies in wildlife populations across the United States.

Initiative: WS human health/safety general the wadsworth center (WC) rabies laboratory will perform testing to support the USDA wildlife services (USDA-WS) oral rabies vaccination (ORV) campaign for the control and surveillance of terrestrial rabies. Efforts to eliminate the spread of rabies outbreaks in wildlife are initiated and managed by staff from the USDA wildlife services. USDA-WS distributes baits containing a rabies vaccine in areas throughout the US predetermined by evaluating ecological and epidemiological factors of wildlife rabies. ORV baits are designed to elicit an immune response against rabies in animals that consume the baits. When these animals are exposed to rabies, the expectation is that the immune response will decrease the risk of infection, thereby preventing the spread of the disease.