Results from these captive and field studies will be included, with extensive results from the human vaccine development program, in an application for veterinary licensing of the Ebola vaccine by the US Department of Agriculture. Once this license has been obtained, a field pilot study will then be used to deliver the vaccine using a hypodermic dart to wild gorillas habituated to human presence. After the pilot study is completed and vaccination success is evaluated, the next step will be a larger program in which gorillas and chimpanzees in multiple research and tourism programs are dart vaccinated. In parallel to these darted vaccination programs, research on oral vaccine delivery will be conducted, with the long term objective of vaccinating large numbers of gorillas and chimpanzees against Ebola and other pathogens; particularly human respiratory viruses transmitted to habituated apes in tourism and research programs. A working group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is also examining efficient strategies for vaccinating apes and comparing the cost-effectiveness of Ebola vaccination to that of other ape conservation strategies.

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