Tonie Rocke
Science and Products
Vaccines
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) works on developing various disease management tools, including the development of vaccines. Our current work focuses on vaccines for sylvatic plague, white-nose syndrome, and rabies as disease control strategies.
Sylvatic Plague
Sylvatic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is a bacterial disease transmitted by fleas that afflicts many mammalian species, including humans.
White-Nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern to the central United States at an alarming rate. Since the winter of 2007-2008, millions of insect-eating bats in 33 states and seven Canadian provinces (as of August 2018)...
USGS-NWHC Quarterly Wildlife Mortality Report - January 2019
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) Quarterly Mortality Report provides brief summaries of epizootic mortality and morbidity events by quarter. The write-ups, highlighting epizootic events and other wildlife disease topics of interest, are published in the Wildlife Disease Association quarterly newsletter. A link is provided in this...
Richards, Bryan J.; Bodenstein, Barbara; Dusek, Robert J.; Rocke, Tonie E.; Richgels, Katherine L. D. Impact of sylvatic plague vaccine on non-target small rodents in grassland ecosystems
Oral vaccination is an emerging management strategy to reduce the prevalence of high impact infectious diseases within wild animal populations. Plague is a flea-borne zoonosis of rodents that often decimates prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies in the western USA. Recently, an oral sylvatic plague vaccine (SPV) was developed to protect prairie...
Bron, Gebbiena M.; Richgels, Katherine L. D.; Samuel. Michael D.; Poje, Julia E.; Lorenzsonn, Faye; Matteson, Jonathan P.; Boulerice, Jesse T.; Osorio, Jorge E.; Rocke, Tonie E. Local factors associated with on‐host flea distributions on prairie dog colonies
Outbreaks of plague, a flea‐vectored bacterial disease, occur periodically in prairie dog populations in the western United States. In order to understand the conditions that are conducive to plague outbreaks and potentially predict spatial and temporal variations in risk, it is important to understand the factors associated with flea abundance...
Russell, Robin E.; Abbott, Rachel C.; Tripp, Daniel W.; Rocke, Tonie E. Factors influencing uptake of sylvatic plague vaccine baits by prairie dogs
Sylvatic plague vaccine (SPV) is a virally vectored bait-delivered vaccine expressing Yersinia pestis antigens that can protect prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) from plague and has potential utility as a management tool. In a large-scale 3-year field trial, SPV-laden baits containing the biomarker rhodamine B (used to determine bait consumption) were...
Abbott, Rachel C.; Russell, Robin E.; Richgels, Katherine; Tripp, Daniel W.; Matchett, Marc R.; Biggins, Dean E.; Rocke, Tonie E. Assessing monkeypox virus prevalence in small mammals at the human-animal interface in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
During 2012, 2013 and 2015, we collected small mammals within 25 km of the town of Boende in Tshuapa Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The prevalence of monkeypox virus (MPXV) in this area is unknown; however, cases of human infection were previously confirmed near these collection sites. Samples were collected from 353 mammals (...
Doty, Jeffrey B.; Malekani, Jean M.; Kalemba, Lem's N.; Stanley, William T.; Monroe, Benjamin P.; Nakazawa, Yoshinori J.; Mauldin, Matthew R.; Bakambana, Trésor L.; Liyandja Dja Liyandja , Tobit; Braden, Zachary; Wallace, Ryan; Malekani, Divin V.; McCollum, Andrea M.; Gallardo-Romero, Nadia; Kondas, Ashley; Peterson, A. Townsend; Osorio, Jorge E.; Rocke, Tonie E.; Karem, Kevin L.; Emerson, Ginny L.; Carroll, Darin S. Protection of bats (Eptesicus fuscus) against rabies following topical or oronasal exposure to a recombinant raccoon poxvirus vaccine
Rabies is an ancient neglected tropical disease that causes tens of thousands of human deaths and millions of cattle deaths annually. In order to develop a new vaccine for potential use in bats, a reservoir of rabies infection for humans and animals alike, an in silico antigen designer tool was used to create a mosaic glycoprotein (MoG)...
Stading, Ben; Ellison, James A.; Carson, William C.; Satheshkumar, Panayampalli Subbian; Rocke, Tonie E.; Osorio, Jorge E. Burrow dusting or oral vaccination prevents plague-associated prairie dog colony collapse
Plague impacts prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), the endangered black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) and other sensitive wildlife species. We compared efficacy of prophylactic treatments (burrow dusting with deltamethrin or oral vaccination with recombinant “sylvatic plague vaccine” [RCN-F1/V307]) to placebo treatment in black-tailed prairie dog...
Tripp, Daniel W.; Rocke, Tonie E.; Runge, Jonathan P.; Abbott, Rachel C.; Miller, Michael W. Characterization of Monkeypox virus infection in African rope squirrels (Funisciurus sp.)
Monkeypox (MPX) is a zoonotic disease endemic in Central and West Africa and is caused by Monkeypox virus (MPXV), the most virulent Orthopoxvirus affecting humans since the eradication of Variola virus (VARV). Many aspects of the MPXV transmission cycle, including the natural host of the virus, remain unknown. African...
Falendysz, Elizabeth; Lopera, Juan G.; Doty, Jeffrey B.; Nakazawa, Yoshinori J.; Crill, Colleen; Lorenzsonn, Faye; Kalemba, Lem's N.; Ronderos, Monica; Meija, Andres; Malekani, Jean M.; Karem, Kevin L.; Caroll, Darrin; Osorio, Jorge E.; Rocke, Tonie E. Field efficacy trials with sylvatic plague vaccine
These data were collected as part of a field trial to test the efficacy of a sylvatic plague vaccine. Treatment and control sites were selected randomly from the available sites at each location. Site pairs were a minimum of 20 acres, (with a few exceptions). Prairie dog trapping took place a minimum of two weeks post-baiting and trapping...
Richgels, Katherine; Russell, Robin E.; Rocke, Tonie E. Sylvatic plague vaccine partially protects prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) in field trials
Sylvatic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, frequently afflicts prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), causing population declines and local extirpations. We tested the effectiveness of bait-delivered sylvatic plague vaccine (SPV) in prairie dog colonies on 29 paired placebo and treatment plots (1–59 ha in size; average 16.9 ha) in 7 western...
Rocke, Tonie E.; Tripp, Daniel W.; Russell, Robin E.; Abbott, Rachel C.; Richgels, Katherine; Matchett, Marc R.; Biggins, Dean E.; Griebel, Randall; Schroeder, Greg; Grassel, Shaun M.; Pipkin, David R.; Cordova, Jennifer; Kavalunas, Adam; Maxfield, Brian; Boulerice, Jesse T.; Miller, Michael W. Responses of juvenile black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) to a commercially produced oral plague vaccine delivered at two doses
We confirmed safety and immunogenicity of mass-produced vaccine baits carrying an experimental, commercial-source plague vaccine (RCN-F1/V307) expressing Yersinia pestis V and F1 antigens. Forty-five juvenile black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) were randomly divided into three treatment groups (n=15 animals/group). Animals in the...
Cárdenas-Canales, Elsa M.; Wolfe, Lisa L.; Tripp. Daniel W.; Rocke, Tonie E.; Abbott, Rachel C.; Miller, Michael W. VNTR diversity in Yersinia pestis isolates from an animal challenge study reveals the potential for in vitro mutations during laboratory cultivation
Underlying mutation rates and other evolutionary forces shape the population structure of bacteria in nature. Although easily overlooked, similar forces are at work in the laboratory and may influence observed mutations. Here, we investigated tissue samples and Yersinia pestis isolates from a rodent laboratory challenge with strain CO92 using...
Vogler, Amy J.; Nottingham, Roxanne; Busch, Joseph D.; Sahl, Jason W.; Shuey, Megan M.; Foster, Jeffrey T.; Schupp, James M.; Smith, Susan; Rocke, Tonie E.; Klein, Paul; Wagner, David M.
Taking the Bait: Majority of Prairie Dogs Are Consuming Plague Vaccine
About 70 percent of wild prairie dogs successfully ingested baits containing an oral sylvatic plague vaccine, or SPV, that were distributed throughout their habitats, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.
Oral Plague Vaccine Helps Reduce Outbreaks in Prairie Dog Colonies
Prairie dogs in the wild are less likely to succumb to plague after they ingest peanut-butter-flavored bait that contains a vaccine against the disease, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study published today in the journal EcoHealth.