‘One Health’ in action: Scott-Ritchey Center takes on global threat of rabies
By Troy Johnson
When Dr. Doug Martin describes rabies as perhaps “the world’s oldest infectious disease,” he’s speaking in terms of millennia rather than centuries.
“You can find depictions of it written on cave and pyramid walls,” said Martin, director of the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Scott-Ritchey Research Center and a professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology.
The Code of Hammurabi referenced rabies in 1750 BC, and Aristotle described it around 380 BC, but the arrival of World Rabies Day on Sunday, Sept. 28, offers a reminder that it isn’t a relic of the past. While rabies deaths in the U.S. are uncommon due to the prevalence of pet vaccinations, the threat remains significant.
“It’s one of those problems that affects humans and animals equally,” Martin said. “A lot of people have no idea how prevalent it still is in many countries.”
According to the World Health Organization, India accounts for 36 percent of global rabies fatalities with an estimated 20,000 fatalities annually. The country’s large population of free-ranging and territorial stray dogs contributes to the crisis, with more than 3.7 million dog bite cases reported by the national Ministry of Health in 2024 alone. The viral disease affects the central nervous system of mammals and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear.
A personal mission
For Jyoti Yadav, a Ph.D. candidate in the college’s biomedical sciences program and a Scott-Ritchey Center research assistant, the problem hits close to home. A native of India, Yadav said stray “community” dogs remain a persistent transmission vector for the disease. Since euthanasia of unowned dogs is prohibited in India, the population of potential carriers grows. The annual fatality level may also be undercounted as well since individuals in rural and poor communities who are stricken with the virus lack access to treatment and may die at home.
“The topic is really close to my heart and my family understands it well,” Yadav said. “At some point, I would go back (to India) and work in a way that I can use my skillsets to help people.”
Her skillsets and helping nature are already making a difference at the Scott-Ritchey Research Center, an interdisciplinary molecular medicine research program that advances the college’s “One Health” focus.
Exploring the potential of AAV
Working alongside faculty mentors like Martin and Dr. Amanda Gross, assistant research professor, Yadav has contributed to gene therapy research as a potential treatment for patients already infected with rabies. Their collective work in adeno-associated virus (AAV) research may ultimately allow for treatment of rabies even after it has entered the central nervous system, addressing the major limitation of traditional vaccines. Instead of relying on the body’s immune system to produce antibodies, AAV delivers genetic material that instructs the patient’s own brain cells to create therapeutic antibodies.
Think of AAV as a pill capsule or a piece of candy, in which the primary ingredient is hidden within a protective exterior shell. Gross said the Scott-Ritchey team’s therapeutic effort removes the genetic information of the AAV and replaces it with instructions to make the rabies antibody. The shell, or capsid, is changed to enter the brain, target brain cells and neutralize the rabies infection.
“Rabies is a problem of the brain,” Gross said. “Most of our treatments cannot get to the brain. We at the Scott-Ritchey Research Center have developed a virus that can go across the blood-brain barrier. That allows us to go from the blood to the brain and deliver the information to make antibodies against rabies, which is something that could change the world.”
Gross said this particular avenue represents a powerful example of how the Scott-Ritchey Center engages in “translational research,” which can result in clinical applications across species.
“Translational research and ‘One Health’ really work hand-in-hand,” Gross said. “We are developing therapies in animals that we hope can help humans. Translational research can take place across species, but it can also make connections from basic research to human clinical application or veterinary clinical application.”
Martin said that, while AAV research has yielded promising results, knowledge presents a powerful means of mitigating the threat of rabies. Another defense comes in the form of pet owners keeping their animals up to date on vaccines. Rabies remains endemic in North America and can be transmitted from wild animals to pets, people, farm animals and other wild animals. Bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, cats and dogs are all capable of spreading the virus.
“In the U.S., three to five people a year die from rabies,” Martin said. “It’s almost always bat-derived rabies. Dog-derived rabies is so well controlled by vaccination that very few people die from dog bites anymore.
“We’re only a few steps away from it being a huge issue here if people don’t vaccinate their animals. You may not want to spend that $25, but there is still a need to vaccinate.”