IMMUNOGENICITY OF ERA G 333 STRAIN IN FOXES AND RACCOON DOGS D. Bankovskiy(1, 2), G. Safonov(1) and Y. Kurilchuk(1) (1) Pokrov Plant of Biologics, Volginskiy, Russia. (2) All-Russian Research Institute of Veterinary Virology and Microbiology, Pokrov, Russia.

Oral vaccination Two oral vaccines have been used for wild life rabies vaccination in Russia Not enough vaccine quantity have been used for ORV campaigns There was concern about safety and efficacy of vaccine rabies strains Russia still needs a safe and efficient vaccine strain

ERA G 333 Created by reversed genetics Have been received from collaborators at CDC As part of BTEP program Avirulent for 11 species of target and non target animals

The immunogenicity experiment design. Part I: foxes Species # VNA titers, IU/ml Day of death Comments Before challenge Day 30 after challenge Day 60 after challenge fox 1 4.46 7.74 5.87 - 2 <0.04 2.56 1.12 3 0.87 0.65 4 0.86 5 1.14 6 1.50 7 2.51 1.99 8 9 0.13 0.50 0.29 10 0.85 11 20th 12 15th unvaccinated control 13 17th 14 21st

The immunogenicity experiment design. Part II: raccoon dogs Species # VNA titers, IU/ml Day of death Comments Before challenge Day 30 after challenge Day 60 after challenge Raccoon dog 1 13.45 13.46 10.44 - 2 23.37 21.43 18.15 3 2.56 10.21 4.56 4 <0.04 12th unvaccinated control 5 14th 6 15th 7 0.50 0.86 8 21st 9 18th 10 22nd 11 17th

RESULTS 63% of foxes and 33% of raccoon dogs showed seroconversion by day 60 after vaccination. After challenge with virulent rabies virus strain 90% of foxes and 50% of raccoon dogs have survived.

CONCLUSIONS The appropriate immunogenicity of ERA G 333 for foxes and raccoon dogs has been shown in this experiment. This strain is the strong candidate for new oral rabies vaccine. The decision about future use of ERA G 333 strain can be made after the determination of immunity duration and minimal efficient doze of the vaccine virus.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Pokrov Plant of Biologics Staff of the Rabies Program of CDC BTEP