- 著者
- Ippei Watanabe Kentaro Yamada Akira Aso Okio Suda Takashi Matsumoto Takaaki Yahiro Kamruddin Ahmed Akira Nishizono
- 出版者
- 国立感染症研究所 Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases 編集委員会
- 雑誌
- Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases (ISSN:13446304)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.66, no.1, pp.17-21, 2013 (Released:2013-01-22)
- 参考文献数
- 23
- 被引用文献数
- 4 12
A mass rabies vaccination of dogs has been conducted annually in Japan over the last 60 years. To assess both current levels of rabies virus-neutralizing antibody (VNA) in dogs and the rationale for current vaccination procedures, we used a rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test to determine VNA levels in 756 dogs that had visited animal hospitals in Japan. We found that 51.1% of the dogs that had received 1 rabies vaccination had protective VNA levels (≥0.5 IU/ml) with a geometric mean of 0.61 IU/ml. In contrast, 97.8% of the dogs that had been vaccinated at least twice had protective VNA levels with a geometric mean of 7.86 IU/ml. Furthermore, 97.9–100% of the dogs vaccinated at least twice retained protective VNA levels into the second year after the last vaccination. Although VNA levels in the dogs vaccinated at least twice tended to decline 2 years after the last vaccination, 78.9% retained protective VNA levels. Thus, the current rabies vaccination schedule provides adequate protection, but the registration system and vaccination schedule needs to be improved to ensure that increased numbers of dogs are vaccinated against rabies.