Efficacy of rabies vaccines against Duvenhage virus isolated from European house bats (Eptesicus serotinus), classic rabies and rabies-related viruses.

Isolates of rabies from separate enzootics can be distinguished by their reactions with panels of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed to different sites on the nucleocapsid and glycoproteins of the virus. Estimates of antigenic relatedness can be made by comparing similarities among groups. In this manner it can be shown that while classic strains of rabies react with most of the mAbs, the rabies related Lyssaviruses (Mokola, Lagos and Duvenhage) react with only a few of the mAbs and isolates of rabies from Eptesicus serotinus bats in Europe are intermediate between the two groups. Mice immunized intraperitoneally with human diploid vaccine (HDCV) or animal vaccines (Rabisin and Rabiffa) were protected against a challenge with DBV, DUV-1 and most classic rabies strains. HDCV gave only partial protection against human virus isolates from Finland and Saudi Arabia. The HDCV did not protect mice against challenges with Lagos bat or Mokola virus (rabies-like viruses). The animal vaccines, however, did protect mice against Lagos bat virus, but not against Mokola. Dogs immunized with Rabisin were protected against an intracerebral challenge with DBV. Dogs developed rabies-neutralizing antibody titres after intramuscular or intravenous inoculation with live DBV or DUV-1 virus; these dogs were protected against an intramuscular canine street rabies virus challenge. We conclude that the rabies vaccines tested protect against DBV/DUV-1 and classic street rabies strains, but not Mokola.