Chapter Three - Virus Isolation in Cell Culture: The Rabies Tissue Culture Infection Test

Abstract

The isolation of lyssaviruses is an important step for the implementation of the diagnosis of rabies. Viral isolation represents a complementary technique allowing the confirmation of results obtained with antigen detection tests, such as the direct fluorescent antibody test (DFAT), which is a gold standard technique. Virus isolation is also necessary to identify unambiguously the etiological agent and to further amplify each positive isolate. The rabies tissue culture infection test (RTCIT) is a technique recommended for the detection of the infectivity of a tissue suspension (i.e. from a brain specimen) or of body fluids (e.g. saliva) using highly sensitive cells, such as neuroblastoma cell lines. This technique should replace inoculation of animals, and in particular the mouse inoculation test (MIT), whenever possible. The RTCIT is relatively simple to conduct, inexpensive, and provides rapid and reliable results.