Modern approaches to production of safe and effective genetically modified rabies vaccines for animals

Rabies is a dangerous zoonoticdisease that affects the central nervous system, causes encephalomyelitis and paralyses and Is almost invariably fatal. The disease causes significant economic losses associated with the death of animals, outbreak consequences, strict restrictions on domestic and international trade in livestock products, preventive and quarantine measures, laboratory tests. The World Organization for Animal Health recommends vaccination to control rabies. Taking into account that there is a lack of affordable high-quality vaccines to globally prevent and control the disease, stable, attenuated production strains of rabies virus with broad cross-activity against various variants of the pathogen shall be considered as ideal candidates to produce high-quality, safe and effective vaccines. Currently, someapproachesareappliedtoreducethevirusvirulenceandimprovesafetyof rabies vaccines. Reverse genetics is very popular now. It provides new approaches to study functions of a specific gene by analyzing phenotypic effects after direct manipulations with nucleotide sequences. The methods of reverse genetics have revolutionized molecular biology and have become apowerful tool to study genetics of RNA viruses. These methods are widely used to study rabies virus. The use of reverse genetics has made it possible to modify rabies virus production strains for manufacture of modern genetically modified rabies vaccines that induce a persistent and long-term immunity. The review briefly covers general approaches to development of viral vectors with the purpose to create genetically modified rabies vaccines

Evaluation of veterinary laboratory proficiency based on results of interlaboratory comparisons organized by FGBI “ARRIAH” in 2018–2019

Laboratory diagnosis is a crucial component in implementation of the set of anti-epidemic measures aimed at contagious animal disease control. The need for unswerving trust in the quality of laboratory performance is a matter of importance not only for service providers and customers, but also for inspecting organiza­tions, accreditation bodies, etc. that establish performance requirements for diagnostic laboratories. Incorrect laboratory test results can lead to a misdiagnosis and, therefore, to grave consequences. One of the forms of experimental verification of a laboratory’s performance with a view to determine the laboratory’s competence and to verify its compliance with accreditation criteria as part of inspection control of the laboratory’s activities is interlaboratory comparison. The laboratory can prove its competence at a particular time, as well as clearly demonstrate how stable the quality of its test results is by summarizing and analyzing the results of its participation in interlaboratory comparisons. The analysis of the results of the interlaboratory comparisons (programmes for detection of causative agents or antibodies to the causative agents of avian influenza, Newcastle disease, rabies, classical swine fever, African swine fever, bluetongue, lumpy skin disease) organized by the FGBI “ARRIAH” for the veterinary laboratories of the Russian Federation in 2018–2019 is presented. The results showed that most of the laboratories had passed the tests successfully. The results submitted by participants were unsatisfactory in some interlaboratory comparison programmes (rabies virus detection using fluorescent antibody technique; detection of avian influenza, classical swine fever and lumpy skin disease viruses using polymerase chain reaction). That highlights the need for those participants who failed the tests to improve their laboratory testing quality