It is essential to rapidly and precisely diagnose rabies. In this study, we evaluated four diagnostic methods, indirect fluorescent antibody test (FAT), virus isolation (VI), reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and rapid immunodiagnostic assay (RIDA), to detect rabies in animal brain homogenates. Out of the 110 animal brain samples tested, 20 (18.2%) were positive for rabies according to the FAT. Compared to the FAT, the sensitivities of VI, RT-PCR, and RIDA were 100, 100, and 95%, respectively. The specificities of VI, RT-PCR and RIDA were found to be 100, 100, and 98.9%, respectively. Rabies viruses circulating in Korea were isolated and propagated in murine neuroblastoma (NG108-15) cells with titers ranging from 101.5 to 104.5 TCID50/mL. Although the RIDA findings did not completely coincide with results obtained from FAT, VI, and RT-PCR, RIDA appears to be a fast and reliable assay that can be used to analyze brain samples. In summary, the results from our study showed that VI, RT-PCR, and RIDA can be used as supplementary diagnostic tools for detecting rabies viruses in both laboratory and field settings.
Animals ; Antigens, Viral/blood ; Brain/virology ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect/*veterinary ; Immunoassay/*veterinary ; RNA, Viral/genetics/isolation & purification ; Rabies/diagnosis/*veterinary/virology ; Rabies virus/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Republic of Korea ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/*veterinary ; Sensitivity and Specificity

OBJECTIVEEvaluation of the direct rapid immumohistochemical test (DRIT) for laboratory surveillance of rabies.

METHODS72 brain specimens of domestic dogs or patients collected from Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Yunnan provinces were detected by conventional methods including Direct Fluorescent-antibody Assay (DFA) and Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), and by DRIT which was newly developed in the Rabies Section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. The sensitivity and specificity of DRIT were evaluated by compare of the three results. By analysis of the index including cost of experiment, technique requirement and so on, the advancement and applicability of DRIT were discussed.

RESULTSCompared with DFA and RT-PCR, DRIT will be more applicable for laboratories with limited funds and weak techniques because of its lower cost needed and simpler techniques required while its sensitivity and specificity are equal to the other two methods.

CONCLUSIONDRIT is more valuable in rabies diagnosis and more applicable for extension and popularization in rabies laboratory surveillance in local CDC.

Animals ; Brain ; virology ; China ; epidemiology ; Dog Diseases ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; virology ; Dogs ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Direct ; methods ; Humans ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Prevalence ; Rabies ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; veterinary ; virology ; Rabies virus ; genetics ; immunology ; isolation & purification