Volume 57 (2007) Issue: 2007 No#1

Injectious rabies vaccines effectiveness evaluation – alternatives

Author(s): Süli J, Beníšek Z, Švrček Š, Ondrejková A, Ondrejka R

Keywords:antigen content, antigenic value, immunogenic activity, vaccine efficacy

For reasons of rationalization and objectivization of the in vivo rabies vaccine potency testing the authors compared different, routinely used routes of vaccine administration (subcutaneous, intramuscular and intradermal), as well as different ways of challenge that correspond to the natural ways of exposure (subcutaneous, intramuscular) of target animal species with the referent NIH method (intraperitoneal immunization, intracerebral challenge). Immunogenic and antigenic activity of rabies vaccines and the respective correlations were investigated. On the basis of low correlation rate of the immunogenic and antigenic activity values of rabies vaccines tested, the authors consider the NIH method non-objective. A high correlation rate between immunogenic and antigenic activity of tested vaccines was recorded by using the LPL method. The authors used an alternative in vitro method – simplified ELISA test for the quantification of rabies antigen content in the tested vaccines. The method can be used only for non-adjuvant vaccines. According to the authors, the antigen content corresponding to 1.0 EU/cm3 is considered the lower limit for satisfactory efficacy of the vaccine.