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Infectious Diseases 2018
Journal of Prevention and Infection Control
ISSN: 2471-9668
Page 72
June 07-08, 2018
London, UK
8
th
Edition of International Conference on
Infectious Diseases
T
he direct fluorescent antibody test (DFA) is the standard test
for the diagnosis of both animal and human rabies. This test
detects lyssavirus antigen on brain-infected tissues and central
nervous tissues including salivary glands. In this study, we
used the molecular quantitative real-time reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunologic direct
rapid immunohistochemical test (dRIT) as alternatives to DFA.
A total of 278 specimens were initially subjected to DFA. The
specimens were brought in two batches: the first batch consisting
of 260 brain and salivary gland tissue specimens collected from
dog markets in South East Nigeria from October 2015 to July
2016, and the other comprising 18 brain specimens from rabies-
suspect dogs from both veterinary hospitals and dog markets.
From the first batch, 10 brain and 7 salivary gland samples were
DFApositive.Thereafter, the10DFApositivebrainsamples and the
10 salivary gland samples from the DFA positive brain tissues and
the 18 samples from rabies-suspect dogs (n=28) were subjected
to DFA, dRIT and RT-qPCR. Using DFA, dRIT and RT-qPCR, 82.1%
(n=23), 100% (n=28) and 96.4% (n=27) were positive for lyssavirus
antigen, respectively. Then, of the 10 salivary gland samples
tested, 70% (n=7), 90% (n=9) and 20% (n=2) were positive for DFA,
dRIT and RT-qPCR, respectively. In this study, dRIT gave similar
result (100%) with the molecular RT-qPCR. This shows that dRIT
is a highly sensitive diagnostic test for rabies diagnosis and was
superior to the DFA. The RT-qPCR is highly sensitive as it was able
to detect very low lyssavirus concentration in brain tissues. The
discordance of the DFA and dRIT results underscore that rabies
is under-reported in Africa considering that many laboratories do
not have the capability to undertake molecular analysis.
ukamakauchenna.eze@unn.edu.ngLyssavirus surveillance in dogs in South-East Nigeria:
application of molecular and immunological assays
Eze U U
1
, Coertzer A
2
, Anene B M
1
, Ezeokonkwo R C
1
, Nwosuh C
4
, Nel L H
2
and
Sabeta C T
2, 5
1
University of Nigeria, , Nigeria
2
University of Pretoria, South Africa
3
National Veterinary Research Institute, Nigeria
4
Agricultural Research Council - Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa
J Prev Infect Cntrol 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.21767/2471-8084-C1-003