EN

Abstract

A dog suspected to be affected with rabies attacked 31 animals in Kesarahatti village of Gangavathi taluk, Koppal District in Karnataka on 14 th June 2015. Of these, 26 animals (14 cattle, 5 buffaloes and 7 dogs) were given the first aid followed by post exposure anti rabies vaccine at 1 (15 th June 2015), 3, 7, 14 and 28 days interval whereas the remaining 5 animals (2 cattle and 3 buffaloes) reportedly died of suspected (based on clinical manifestation) rabies after 8 days of dog bite episode. These 5 animals were not provided first aid and post exposure prophylactic (PEP) vaccination as their exposure to the rabid dog bite went unnoticed. Further, the serum samples could be collected from only 21 out of 26 vaccinated animals on 28 th and 90 th day post vaccination. These serum samples were tested by Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) and the titre of neutralizing antibodies ranged from 1-8 IU/ml from the serum collected on 28 th day post vaccination indicating protection in all the vaccinated animals. But the titre ranged from 0.5-4 IU/ml in 18 animals and less than 0.5 IU/ml in three animals (2 cows and a dog) on 90 th day post vaccination. The protective level of neutralizing antibody titre on day 28 post vaccination and non-development of disease suggests that the PEP vaccination could be effective in livestock avoiding euthanasia and culling of animals. Sunilkumar KM 2 , Isloor S 1,* , Ansar Kamran C 2 , Santosh AK 1 , Ramesh PT 2 , Sharada R 3 , Yathiraj S 2 , Rathnamma D 1 , Suryanarayana T 2 , Patil SS 4 and Abhinandan Patil 4