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Assessing the Potency of Inactivated Veterinary Vaccines and Oral Live Vaccines Against Rabies

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Rabies and Rabies Vaccines

Abstract

Vaccination of wildlife and dogs against rabies is the only efficient way to control and prevent the disease in both animals and humans. Vaccines currently in use are either inactivated (for domestic animals by injectable route) or live-attenuated or biotechnology derived (for wildlife by oral route). The objective is to vaccinate large parts of the target populations to reach a herd immunity to break the chain of infection. Quality controls on the final products are required to guarantee that these medicines are safe, stable, sterile and efficient in the target species. This chapter reviews the tests required by state regulatory authorities to assess the quality of parenteral and oral vaccines prior to their market release. The main controls focus on vaccine activity, consisting in the potency test for inactivated vaccines (NIH test) and in a virus titration for oral vaccines. A focus is also done on alternative methods to apply the 3Rs (refinement, reduction and replacement of animal use) approach in animal testing. The need for international cooperation for reaching harmonized protocols among control laboratories and for testing all produced batches of vaccines prior to their use is highlighted for ensuring consistent results.

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Correspondence to Florence Cliquet .

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Servat, A., Cliquet, F., Wasniewski, M. (2020). Assessing the Potency of Inactivated Veterinary Vaccines and Oral Live Vaccines Against Rabies. In: Ertl, H. (eds) Rabies and Rabies Vaccines. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21084-7_10

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