Research overview: wildlife rabies control and the protection of wild felids

Controlling rabies in its wildlife and domestic reservoirs indirectly protects wild felids that are spillover victims of the disease. This overview surveys rabies control strategies relevant to felid conservation, including mass dog vaccination, oral vaccination of wildlife reservoirs, and surveillance to identify maintenance hosts. It examines how reducing rabies circulation in dogs, jackals and other reservoirs lowers the exposure of lions, leopards and other cats, and the broader public-health and conservation benefits of integrated rabies management. The synthesis connects disease control programs to wildlife protection. It aims to help readers understand that safeguarding wild felids from rabies depends less on vaccinating the cats themselves than on suppressing the virus in the reservoir species that drive transmission, a strategy that benefits wildlife, livestock and people alike.