Rabies antibody determination by immunofluorescence in tissue culture.

A tissue culture (TC)-fluorescent antibody (FA) technique for the measurement of rabies-neutralizing antibody was found to be reliable and comparable to the standard mouse serum neutralization test. This test was performed with BHK-21 cells infected with the ERA vaccine virus strain on Lab-Tek TC chamber slides. A Flury high egg passage (HEP) rabies virus strain grown on continuous line of African green monkey (Vero) and on BHK-21 cells was investigated to determine its utilization in a TC-FA neutralization procedure. Although both the HEP and ERA viruses infected Vero and BHK-21 cells, the amount of fluorescent antigen observed was most consistent with ERA virus and BHK-21 cells.