ABSTRACT
Serum from beef cattle vaccinated by their owners, with three different commercial rabies vaccines (A, B and C) were obtained for the determination of neutralizing antibody levels induced after the vaccination procedure. Serum samples were collected from different groups of animals, on the 30th, 90th, 180th and 360th days post-vaccination. Antibody titers were determined by the mouse neutralization test (MNT) using the CVS-31/2 strain. One month post-vaccination, attenuated vaccine B showed the best results, inducing detectable neutralizing antibodies titers (≥ 1:5) in 95.5% of the animals; inactivated vaccine A in 86.0% of the animals and vaccine C in 100% in the group that received two doses and only 10% of the animals which received one dose. However, after one year this percentage had decreased to 45.5% in the animals vaccinated with vaccine B; 19% with vaccine A; 20% with two doses of vaccine C and 0% in the animals vaccinated with one dose of this vaccine. According to the literature and to the present experiments, commercially produced Brazilian rabies vaccines should be used according to the government recommendation, with annual vaccination, and even every six months in epidemical areas.
KEY WORDS:
Rabies; vaccines; bovine serum; mouse neutralization test; antibodies.
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