Real-time PCR analysis of dog cerebrospinal fluid and saliva samples for ante-mortem diagnosis of rabies.

The use of a 10-day observation to determine whether a dog is rabid is standard practice. This study was conducted in order to look for evidence of rabies vius in saliva and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of suspected live rabid dogs at the time of quarantine by using a SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR based assay for the detection of rabies virus RNA. Saliva and CSF of dogs were collected once on the day of admission for the 10-day quarantine. All test dogs were or became ill and died of rabies within the observation period. Thirteen of 15 dogs (87%) had saliva samples that were positive for rabies RNA. Two dogs with furious rabies had negative saliva samples. Positive CSF samples were found in 4 of 15 dogs (27%) whose saliva samples were positive. The time from sample collection to result was less than 5 hours. Because virus may be absent or present at very low level in both clinical fluids, samples taken for ante-mortem diagnosis cannot definitively rule out rabies.

Dog rabies in Bangkok.

Canine rabies remains a serious public health problem in Thailand. The Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute (QSMI) of the Thai Red Cross Society is the principal rabies diagnostic center in central Thailand. The retrospective study of canine rabies cases collected between 1994-1999 revealed that: (1) The prevalence of rabid dogs has decreased, and was associated with an overall decrease in the number of animals submitted for examination. However, the percentages of dogs with positive Fluorescent antibody test (FA) remained the same at approximately 40 per cent. (2) About 62 per cent of rabid dogs were less than one year old. Dogs at this age are more active and most have not been adequately vaccinated. Approximately 80 per cent of rabid dogs had never been vaccinated against rabies.