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Update from MAC on
Rabies in Americas Conference
I attended the
International Rabies in the Americas conference in Ontario in November of 2001
on behalf of ASRR. This is an annual conference attended by all the experts in
the field of rabies (including those from the various government agencies who
must be involved in the testing and approval process for the skunk rabies
vaccine). This conference is where the latest information on rabies is
exchanged each year.
The purpose of my attendance was to:
- Identify and meet as many people as possible who might be able to assist
us, either directly or indirectly by supplying information and leads
- Introduce ASRR to the appropriate people
- Review and refine our understanding of the processes (and tests) that are
required to meet our goals.
The fact that ASRR was represented at this conference in person helped us to
get past the issue of legitimacy. I was told that many people wanting rabies
vaccines for various animals approach these people frequently and they cannot
initially differentiate between the people who are committed to following
through on all the work involved in getting a vaccine approved and those who
will "drop
out"
before they get started.
I spent quite a bit of time with our contact from the CDC. I first met him in
person well over a year ago and he has been following our progress. He was very
glad to see me at the conference and was extremely helpful. One of the things we
have to be certain of is that we follow the requirements of the CDC and the USDA
very carefully since any deviation from what is required could cause us to have
to start over with the testing. With the expenses involved, we want to make
sure that we do it right the first time. So we spent some time discussing
this. He verified that we were on the right track and was able to give me some
funding contact and people/organizations who might be able to assist us. (There
are a lot of pieces that all need to come together in order to make this vaccine
happen!)
Our contact with the vaccine manufacturer was extremely helpful with suggestions
and gave me several introductions to people who may be able to assist us.
Having a personal introduction made a world of difference in the reception I got
from these people. The vaccine manufacturer is also interested in helping us
with our project.
However, as ASRR has stated before, having a rabies vaccine approved for use in
skunks will not generate enough profit for the manufacturer to recover their
costs. So while they are interested in helping us to some degree, we still need
to find our own funding. Thanks to advice received at the conference by several
people, we have some leads to follow to getting help with funding.
On personal note, it was great to see someone from our very own
'skunk
world'
there. Dr. Dragoo was in attendance and I very much enjoyed meeting him in
person and getting to talk with him. In fact, he was involved in several of the
discussions I had with people who are very important to us. And I got to see his
famous skunk belt buckle!!!
Following the conference, we have begun contacting various agencies and groups
to enlist their help in various aspects of the testing.
We are also working on funding. While this has been an ongoing effort for ASRR
since the beginning, we are now in need of larger sums of money than we are able
to generate by having booths at the various skunk shows. So we are also
researching and contacting other agencies in an effort to locate funding on a
much larger scale.
We have a big job ahead of us. It is going to take a lot of time, patience,
money and effort. But, in the long run it will all be worth it for our skunks.
Click here to see comments
from a wolfdog rabies person.
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