Rabies spread modelling within wild dog populations in northern Australia

Australia, a canine rabies free country, is threatened by the current spread of the disease across the Indonesian Archipelago. This spread has brought rabies to only 300 km from northern Australia. A high risk of incursion has been identified in specific areas of northern Australia (Sparkes et al., 2015), which are characterised by the presence of remote Indigenous communities. In addition, Australia is home to a large wild dog population (including dingoes, feral dogs and dingo-dog hybrids) which is distributed throughout most of the Australian continent. Hence, the incursion of rabies into wild dog populations in Australia would make disease control very challenging and would represent a threat to human health, domestic animals and wildlife populations in Australia.