Research overview: domestic dog vaccination as a buffer against wildlife distemper outbreaks

Because domestic dogs often act as the reservoir feeding canine distemper into wild carnivores, vaccinating dogs around protected areas has become a key conservation tool. This overview surveys the logic and evidence behind buffer-zone vaccination campaigns, including those launched after the Serengeti lion epidemic. It considers herd-immunity thresholds in fast-turnover village dog populations, logistical challenges of reaching enough dogs, and debates over whether dog vaccination alone interrupts spillover or whether other wild reservoirs sustain the virus. The synthesis weighs the relative merits of controlling disease in the domestic source versus directly vaccinating endangered wildlife, drawing on rabies and distemper programs alike. It aims to explain why intervening at the domestic-wildlife interface is often the most practical defense for vulnerable felids.