POTENCY TESTING OF TISSUE-CULTURE RINDERPEST VACCINE IN RABBITS

Rinderpest (RP) vaccine potency testing requires virulent bovine rinde rpest virus (RPV). Use of virulent REV is a biosafety hazard. In this study we had vaccinated rabbits with tissue culture RP vaccine at diff erent doses and thereafter challenged with lapinized virus. No thermal reaction in vaccinated rabbits was observed: Serum neutralizing antib ody response to vaccine was Rose dependent until the second week post- vaccination but by the fourth week post-vaccination all the rabbits ha d similar neutralizing antibody titres, Vaccinated rabbits exhibited m ild clinical signs as compared to unvaccinated controls after challeng e. All the vaccinated rabbits survived challenge while only 40% unvacc inated rabbits survived challenge with virulent lapinised RPV. A stron g anamnestic response in all the vaccinated rabbits was observed after challenge with lapinized virus. This study shows that rabbits could b e used for potency testing of RP vaccine virus. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd.