Safety, efficacy and immunogenicity evaluation of the SAG2 oral rabies vaccine in Formosan ferret badgers
Journal
PLoS ONE
Journal Volume
12
Journal Issue
10
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Hsu A.-P.
Tseng C.-H.
Barrat J.
Lee S.-H.
Shih Y.-H.
Wasniewski M.
M?hl P.
Chang C.-C.
Lin C.-T.
Chen R.-S.
Tu W.-J.
Cliquet F.
Abstract
Since 2013, rabies cases have been reported among Formosan ferret badgers in Taiwan, and they have been shown to be the major reservoirs for Taiwanese enzootics. To control and eradicate rabies, the authorities plan to implement a vaccination programme. Before distributing live vaccines in the field, this study assessed the safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of SAG2 vaccine on ferret badgers by direct oral instillation. After application of 109 TCID50/dose, no virus was excreted into the oral cavity 1–7 days post-application, and safety was also satisfactorily verified over a 266-day period. Moreover, despite the low level of rabies virus neutralising antibodies induced after vaccination of a 108 TCID50/dose, the efficacy assessment revealed a 100% survival rate (15/15) of vaccinees and an 87.5% fatality rate (7/8) in control animals after a challenge on the 198th day post-vaccination. The immunisation and protection rates obtained more than 6 months after a single vaccination dose demonstrated that SAG2 is an ideal vaccine candidate to protect Formosan ferret badgers against rabies in Taiwan. ? 2017 Hsu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
SDGs
Other Subjects
neutralizing antibody; rabies vaccine; rabigen; rabies vaccine; animal experiment; animal model; animal tissue; antibody titer; Article; controlled study; drug efficacy; drug instillation; drug safety; feasibility study; female; immunization; immunogenicity; male; Melogale; mortality rate; mouth cavity; nonhuman; protection; rabies; real time polymerase chain reaction; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; survival rate; Taiwan; virus excretion; animal; disease carrier; immunology; Mustela putorius furo; oral drug administration; rabies; vaccination; Administration, Oral; Animals; Disease Reservoirs; Ferrets; Rabies; Rabies Vaccines; Taiwan; Vaccination
Type
journal article