Lyme disease: Reservoir-targeted vaccines

Abstract

In many parts of the world, microbial diseases have been controlled by a combination of improved hygiene practices, surveillance, diagnosis, treatments, effective vaccines, as well as greater public education and awareness of risk factors. Control strategies are especially challenging for diseases caused by pathogens that persist in a mammalian wildlife reservoir and use vectors such as insects to cycle through that species. In this group, the most relevant illnesses that pose a direct human health risk are rabies, sylvatic plague, and Lyme disease [1]. Reservoir-targeted vaccines have been developed as vaccination strategies that target the host reservoir or the transmitting vector both for rabies and for Lyme disease. An example of a successful application is the oral vaccine (Raboral TM) currently used by local governments in the United States to create barriers between infected wildlife and highly populated areas to prevent transmission of rabies. In this chapter I will discuss the development of an oral reservoir-targeted vaccine to curb transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi within wildlife and its projected impact on reduction of the incidence of Lyme disease in humans.