Rabies is an infectious disease that, once it develops, has no cure and is almost 100% dead.The Philippines is one of the most prevalent countries for rabies, with about 200 deaths each year.More than 100 million people bitten by dogs and cats are receiving preventive treatment such as vaccines.

　Rabies can be prevented if there is sufficient immunity from vaccination, so tests to check immunity are important.However, the test could not be carried out because there is no virus strain for rabies testing (CVS-11 strain) in the Philippines, which is essential for the implementation of this test method.

　In July 2019, Oita University provided technical guidance and transfer of technology for viral strain propagation to the Philippine Institute of Tropical Medicine.The university has one of the best experiences and achievements in rabies research in the world.

　Initially, the Philippine Institute for Tropical Medicine used the BHK-21 cells recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health, but failed to propagate the virus.This time, we proposed to use NA-C1300 cells, which are often brought from the Department of Microbiology, Oita University, instead of BHK-21 cells, and at the same time, how to efficiently infect cells with rabies virus and how to culture them. In addition, we provided technical guidance and support such as how to confirm that the virus has increased sufficiently before collecting it.As a result, we succeeded in increasing the number of imported CVS-11 strains and succeeded in introducing the rabies antibody test virus strain into the Philippine Institute for Tropical Medicine.

　It is expected that this activity will improve the testing ability of the Philippine Institute for Tropical Medicine as a rabies laboratory and promote efforts for rabies control in the Philippines.

reference:[Oita University] Succeeded in introducing a virus strain for rabies testing