Systematic Veterinary Virology

SEROLOGICAL TESTS

• Serological tests are rarely used due to late seroconversion and the low percentage of animals surviving the disease having post-infection antibodies. The tests that are normally performed are
• Virus neutralisation test in cell culture: Fuorescent antibody virus neutralisation test – FAVN (accepted for international trade). The principle of the fluorescent antibody virus neutralisation (FAVN) test is the neutralisation in vitro of a constant amount of rabies virus before inoculating cells susceptible to rabies virus in BHK-21 C13 cells.
• Rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT) for determining rabies virus-neutralising antibody (accepted test for international trade).
• Virus neutralization in mice.
• ELISA: Indirect ELISA is used to determine the level of rabies antibodies in individual dog and cat serum samples following vaccination.