Human safety of SPBN GASGAS for oral rabies vaccination of dogs

Abstract

Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of dogs has been suggested as a complementary tool to injectable rabies vaccination, to access free-roaming dogs during mass dog vaccination campaigns. Stringent safety requirements have been developed and implemented for ORVs targeting wildlife and dogs. Part of the safety requirements involves conducting a risk assessment of the potential for human contact with the vaccine virus and the impact on human health. The former is predominantly determined by the bait distribution method and the latter by the safety profile of the vaccine construct. This risk assessment is focused on a commercially available ORV for dogs, SPBN GASGAS. Overall, it is concluded that although human contacts with the vaccine virus do occur infrequently, the risk of serious adverse events in humans is negligible due to the safety profile of the vaccine virus construct.