Dog Population Rabies Immunity before a Mass Vaccination Campaign in Lima, Peru: Vulnerabilities for Virus Reestablishment

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Lima, Peru, has not had a case of canine rabies since 1999. However, Lima remains at risk of rabies reintroduction due to the free movement of dogs from nearby rabies-endemic areas. In Latin America, rabies vaccination campaigns must reach 80% of dogs to halt transmission, but estimates of vaccine coverage are often unavailable, unreliable, or inaccurate. Quantifying virus neutralizing antibodies (VNA) allows monitoring of the immunological status of the canine population, evaluation of the degree of humoral protection to the virus, and assessing, partially, the population response to vaccination. We evaluated the dog population’s immunity level against the rabies virus before a mass vaccination campaign in Lima. We collected 141 canine blood samples in the district of Surquillo and quantified rabies virus neutralizing antibody titers using the fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test). We surveyed dogs owners to reconstruct canine vaccination histories. Among dogs previously vaccinated, 73.9% exceeded the seroconversion threshold of > 0.5 IU/mL. Among all dogs, only 58.2% reached the titer limit for seroconversion. Dogs ≤ 1 year old constituted 26.2% of the total canine population and had lower levels of VNA than dogs > 1 year old (χ2 = 9.071; P = 0.028). Importantly, dogs vaccinated with single-pathogen vaccines had higher levels of VNA than those who received combined-pathogen vaccines (χ2 = 7.721; P = 0.005). We provide an important and timely glimpse to the immunity status of the dog population in urban areas of Lima, a metropolis near a dog rabies–endemic region.