Safety and Immunogenicity of a Recombinant Rabies Virus Strain (ERAG3G) in Korean Raccoon Dogs

Dong-Kun Yang; Ha-Hyun Kim; Hyun-Ye Jo; Hee-Won Kim; Sung-Suk Choi; In-Soo Cho

doi:10.4167/jbv.2015.45.3.250

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Yang, Kim, Jo, Kim, Choi, and Cho: Safety and Immunogenicity of a Recombinant Rabies Virus Strain (ERAG3G) in Korean Raccoon Dogs

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J Bacteriol Virol 2015;45(3):250-255.

Published online: 9 February 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4167/jbv.2015.45.3.250

Safety and Immunogenicity of a Recombinant Rabies Virus Strain (ERAG3G) in Korean Raccoon Dogs

Dong-Kun Yang^1,^∗, Ha-Hyun Kim¹, Hyun-Ye Jo¹, Hee-Won Kim², Sung-Suk Choi¹, In-Soo Cho¹

¹Viral Disease Division, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, MAFRA, Anyang, Korea

²Wild Life Center, Gyeonggi-do Veterinary Service Laboratory, Pyeongtack, Korea

^∗Corresponding author: Dong-Kun Yang. Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, 175 Anyang-ro, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 14089, Korea. Phone: +82-31-467-1783, Fax: +82-31-467-1797, e-mail: yangdk@korea.kr

^∗∗ This work was supported financially by a grant (B-AD14-2011-13-01) from Animal, and Plant Quarantine Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), Republic of Korea.

Received 9 May 201517 August 2015 Accepted 19 August 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

A new alternative rabies bait vaccine strain named ERAG3G, which is applicable to wild animals, was developed to eliminate rabies in South Korea. In this study, the safety and immunogenicity of the strain was evaluated in Korean raccoon dogs. The ERAG3G was propagated in BHK/T7-9 cells. Korean raccoon dogs were administered ERAG3G (1 ml, 10^8.0 FAID₅₀/ml) orally or intramuscularly to evaluate its safety and immunogenicity. The raccoon dogs were observed for 70 days after administration, and immunogenicity was measured using a fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test. The ERAG3G strain was not pathogenic to Korean raccoon dogs immunized via the intramuscular or oral route. Raccoon dogs administered the candidate vaccine via the oral route developed high virus neutralizing antibody (VNA) titers ranging from 13.7 to 41.6 IU/ ml 70 days post administration. Raccoon dogs inoculated intramuscularly with the ERAG3G strain developed moderate VNA titers ranging from 0.5 to 13.7 IU/ ml. These findings suggest that the ERAG3G strain is safe and induces a protective immune response in raccoon dogs.

Keywords: Recombinant rabies virus, Immunity, Raccoon dogs

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Figure 1.

Example of fluorescent assay virus neutralization (FAVN) test performed in BHK-21 cells. Fluorescent in the BHK-21 cells was not found in the A neutralized by serum antibody against RABV, but fluorescent appeared in the B due to absence of serum antibody against RABV.

Table 1.

Virus neutralizing antibody (VNA) titers of raccoon dogs administrated with ERAG3G strain via oral or intramuscular route

Group	Animal No.	Route of inoculation	VNA titer (IU/ ml)
Group	Animal No.	Route of inoculation	0 week	5 weeks	10 weeks
Group 1	1		0.07	41.6	41.6
	2	Oral	0.07	13.7	13.7
	3		0.07	13.7	13.7
	4		0.07	7.90	13.7
GM^∗			0.07	19.2	20.6
SD^∗∗			0.00	15.2	14.0
Group 2	5		0.07	0.87	0.50
	6	IM	0.07	0.87	0.5
	7		0.07	1.51	13.7
	8		0.07	1.51	13.7
GM			0.07	1.19	7.10
SD			0.00	0.40	7.60
Group 3 (control)	9 10	No treatment	0.07 0.07	0.07 0.07	0.07 0.07
GM			0.07	0.07	0.07
SD			0.00	0.00	0.00

^∗ GM: Geometric mean, ∗∗SD: standard deviation. All raccoon dogs immunized with the ERAG3G strain induced high neutralizing antibody titer >0.5 IU/ ml against RABV at 10 weeks after administration.

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