Laboratory diagnosis of equine rabies and its implications for human postexposure prophylaxis.
Abstract: Laboratory diagnosis is essential to confirm suspected cases of equine rabies and to determine the medical care needed for human postexposure antirabies prophylaxis. Equine rabies transmitted by the vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, has increased gradually in the State of São Paulo. The present study has several objectives, the most important being the evaluation of fluorescent antibody test (FAT) and virus-isolation laboratory tests performed with different equine nervous system tissues (cortical, hippocampus, cerebellar, brainstem and cervical medullar) to determine the tissue for which the two techniques have the highest sensitivity. Analysis by FAT of these five regions of the central nervous system (CNS) from 35 animals showed that there was a greater amount of viral antigen in the brainstem and cervical medullar tissues than in the hippocampus, cortical and cerebellar tissues. While there were no significant differences in the mortality rate of mice inoculated with suspension prepared from the different tissues, a trend towards higher mortality rate was detected with brainstem and cervical medullar tissues. Laboratory diagnosis was not affected by whether the animal had been vaccinated or not, or whether it had died following the natural course of the disease or as a result of euthanasia. Isolation of the rabies virus in equine salivary glands demonstrated the potential risk for humans exposed to infected animals.
Publication Date: 2006-08-21 PubMed ID: 16919789DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2006.07.005Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary
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This study aims to improve methods of diagnosing rabies in horses, which is crucial for determining the necessary medical care for humans who may have been exposed to the virus. Special focus was given to understand which tissue in horse’s nervous system is the most optimal for testing, and the transmissibility of the disease by infected horses was also examined.
Research Objectives
- The primary objective of this research was to analyze and compare the effectiveness of virus-isolation and fluorescent antibody test (FAT) methods on different nervous system tissues from the horse. The tissues examined were the cortical, hippocampus, cerebellar, brainstem, and cervical medullar tissues.
- The study also sought to determine the impact of a horse’s vaccination status and manner of death on the lab results.
- The researchers were interested in understanding the risk of human transmission by investigating the presence of rabies virus in equine salivary glands.
Research Methodology and Findings
- The researchers studied the central nervous system (CNS) from 35 animals using the FAT test. The results showed that the virus was more prevalent in the brainstem and the cervical medullar tissues than in the other tissues.
- When mice were inoculated with a suspension prepared from the different tissues, there were no significant differences in the mortality rate. However, a trend indicating higher mortality rates was found with mice inoculated with a suspension from the brainstem and cervical medullar tissues.
- The study also found that the animal’s vaccination status or manner of death did not significantly affect the lab diagnosis of rabies.
- Through the isolation of the rabies virus from the horse’s salivary glands, the study illuminated the risk of potential spread to humans via infected animals.
Implications of the Research
- The study’s finding that the brainstem and cervical medullar tissues are most reliable for rabies testing could lead to more efficacious diagnostic methods.
- By demonstrating the presence of the virus in equine salivary glands, this research highlights the potential risk for humans exposed to infected horses and underscores the crucial need for post-exposure prophylaxis in such instances.
Cite This Article
APA
Carrieri ML, Peixoto ZM, Paciencia ML, Kotait I, Germano PM.
(2006).
Laboratory diagnosis of equine rabies and its implications for human postexposure prophylaxis.
J Virol Methods, 138(1-2), 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2006.07.005 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Instituto Pasteur de São Paulo, Brazil. mlcarrieri@pasteur.saude.sp.gov.br
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Antigens, Viral / analysis
- Brain Stem / virology
- Cells, Cultured
- Cerebellum / virology
- Cerebral Cortex / virology
- Fluorescent Antibody Technique
- Hippocampus / virology
- Horse Diseases / diagnosis
- Horses
- Medulla Oblongata / virology
- Mice
- Rabies / diagnosis
- Rabies / prevention & control
- Rabies / transmission
- Rabies / veterinary
- Rabies virus / isolation & purification
- Salivary Glands / virology
- Sensitivity and Specificity
- Statistics as Topic
- Virus Cultivation
Citations
This article has been cited 3 times.- Ali YH, Mohieddeen TAG, Abdellatif MM, Ahmed BM, Saeed IK, Attaalfadeel HM, Ali AA. Rabies in equids in Sudan. Onderstepoort J Vet Res 2024 Sep 26;91(1):e1-e10.
- Fan L, Zhang L, Li J, Zhu F. Advances in the progress of monoclonal antibodies for rabies. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2022 Dec 31;18(1):2026713.
- Rupprecht C, Kuzmin I, Meslin F. Lyssaviruses and rabies: current conundrums, concerns, contradictions and controversies. F1000Res 2017;6:184.
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