Austrian National Reference Laboratory for Rabies

♦ 05 May 2015 ♦

Since 2002 the Austrian NRL for Rabies is settled in the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Institute for Veterinary Disease Control (www.ages.at), the former Federal Institute for Veterinary Disease Control.

Tasks

Our main task area is processing of diagnostic samples. We are the only laboratory in Austria performing diagnostic examinations on rabies; antigen- as well as antibody detection.

Staff and outbreak management

Members of three departments are involved in all these examinations. Therefore, in case of a rabies outbreak, enough trained staff will be available.
 


Pathology Center East Mödling		 FAT,
Immunohistochemistry,
Collecting and preparing the samples for the departments of Virology and Molecular Biology.
Department for Virology RTCIT,
FAVN (Pet travel scheme as well as human samples),
Bait titration,
Tetracyclin detection,
ELISA for antibody detection in foxes.
Department for Molecular Biology Real-Time RT-PCR,
Conventional RT-PCR,
DNA sequencing,
Phylogenetic analysis.
Rapid and sensitive procedure in case of human ante mortem diagnosis,
Sequencing for genotyping and epidemiological analysis of positive samples.

All methods are accredited according ISO 17025 since 2004.

For the examination of “high risk animals” e.g. clinical suspect illegal imported pets a journal service of a veterinarian and a technician on call is organized over the year.
We work in close cooperation with the advisory board for human rabies of AGES, especially concerning human ante mortem diagnosis or recommendation of vaccination.

In case of an outbreak of rabies, the Federal Ministry of Health is responsible for organization of oral vaccination campaigns of foxes and compensation of hunters, representation of Austria in the EC and billing the co-financing of the EU.

Rabies eradication in Austria

At the beginning of the 1990s Austria started a very efficient concerted campaign of oral vaccination of foxes (ORV) Fig.1.

Fig.1.

During these campaigns, two cases of vaccine associated rabies were diagnosed.

2004   The last case of human rabies in Austria was diagnosed. A young Austrian man was bitten by a rabid dog in Morocco.
2008   Austria declared free from rabies.
2010   Austria switched to sampling plan for monitoring the success of the ORV: four adult foxes/km² from rabies free areas and eight adult foxes from vaccination areas have to be examined, additional Tetracycline detection and ELISA to proof the success of ORV were done. In the years before much more foxes were examined.
2013   Due to the good epidemic situation in the neighbour states, ORV was suspended and only indicator animals (foxes, badgers, raccoons and raccoon dogs, found death or victims of road traffic), clinical suspect animals and animals with human exposure were examined (ca. 350/year)

During all these years samples from animals submitted for rabies diagnostics, were sampled for other scientific issues e.g. “Presence of Trichinella sp. in the Austrian fox population”, Distribution of Echinococcus multilocularis in the Austrian fox population.

Publications

  • Krause, R., Bagó, Z., Revilla-Fernández, S., Loitsch, A., Allerberger, F., Kaufmann, P., Smolle, K.H., Brunner, G., Krejs, G.J. (2005): Travel-associated human rabies in an Austrian man. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 11, 719 – 721.
  • Bagó, Z., Revilla-Fernández, S., Allerberger, F., Krause, R. (2005): Value of immunohistochemistry for rapid ante mortem rabies diagnostics. Letter to the editor. Int. J. Infect. Dis. 9, 351 – 352.
  • Strauss, R., Gränz, A., Wassermann-Neuhold, M., Krause, R., Bagó, Z., Revilla Fernández, S., Simón-Soria, F.S., Echevarría, J.E., Popow-Kraupp, T., Allerberger, F., Schönbauer, M., Hrabcik, H. (2005): A case of travel-related rabies in Austria, September 2004. Eurosurveillance 10, 225 – 226.
  • Fischer M., Wernike K., Freuling C.M., Mü ller T., Aylan O., Brochier B., Cliquet F., Vázquez-Morón S., Hostnik P., Huovilainen A., Isaksson M, Kooi E.A., Mooney J., Turcitu M., Rasmussen T.B., Revilla-Fernández S., Smreczak M, Fooks A.R., Marston D.A., Beer M., Hoffmann B. (2013): Step Forward in Molecular Diagnostics of Lyssaviruses – Results of a Ring Trial among European Laboratories. PLOS ONE, Volume 8 | Issue 3 | e58372
  • Mcelhinney L.M., Marston D., Johnson N.,Black C., Matouch O., Lalosevic D., Stankov S., Must K., Smreczak M., Zmudzinski J.F., Botvinkin A., Aylan O., Vanek E., Cliquet F., Müller T., Fooks A.R. (2006): Molecular Epidemiology of Rabies Viruses in Europe Dev.Biol (Basel) 2006, 125, 17-28
  • Müller T., Bätza H.-J., Beckert A., Bunzenthal C., Cox H., Freuling C.M., Fooks A. R., Frost J., Geue L.,  Höflechner A., Marston D., Neubert A., Neubert L., Revilla-FernándezS., Vanek E., Vos A., Wodak E., Zimmer K., Mettenleiter T. C. (2009): Analysis of vaccine-virus-associated rabies cases in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) after oral rabies vaccination campaigns in Germany and Austria, Arch Virol, DOI 10.1007/s00705-009-0408-7

A pdf document is available here.