Rabies Virus Infection in Livestock

Rabies is a lethal zoonotic encephalomyelitis and a major challenge to public and animal health. Livestock are affected by rabies mostly through bites of rapid dogs or wildlife carnivore\'s species. They are considered as ‘dead-end’ hosts that do not transmit the virus. Rabies in livestock has been endemic in many developing countries for many years and diagnosed through clinical signs and dog-biting history. An introduction on rabies situation in farm animals will be given then subchapters including `rabies in bovines, rabies in small ruminants, rabies in swine and rabies in camelids. In each subchapter we shall discuss, epidemiology, modes of transmission, diagnosis and prevention and control measures.

The Urtica Dioica Agglutinin Prevents Rabies Virus Infection in a Muscle Explant Model

Infection with the rabies virus (RABV) causes fatal encephalitis and paralysis in humans and animals. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) consists of vaccination and the injection of anti-rabies immunoglobulins (RIGs) around the (bite) wound. This is 100% effective in preventing disease if administered in a timely manner. However, the costs, the required cold chain for storage and transport and the limited availability of RIGs makes the treatment challenging. Cheaper and easier to produce alternatives are urgently needed. To aid in the discovery and development of such alternative therapeutics, we developed a physiological relevant infection model. Strips of freshly dissected swine skeletal muscle were placed under tension in culture medium and infected with RABV. Viral antigens were produced in the muscle explants and the virus production increased significantly over time, indicating that RABV infects and replicates in the muscle explants. Subsequently, in a search for inhibitors of RABV entry in muscle cells, we first screened a panel of 34 different lectins in a RABV / BHK-21J cell assay. The Urtica Dioica (stinging nettle) Agglutinin (UDA; a N-acetyl-D-glucosamine specific agglutinin) was found to be able to completely inhibit infection of cells with the RABV (EC50 8.2 μg/mL) by preventing binding of the virus to the host cell. When the infection of the muscle strips was carried out in the presence of UDA, infection of the tissue was completely prevented. We thus developed a physiological relevant RABV muscle infection model and identified an easy to produce component that (i) may serve as a reference for further studies and (ii) holds promise as an alternative for RIGs in PEP.