♦ 06 March 2015 ♦

The Rabies Laboratory of the Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP, Brussels) is officially recognized as the National Reference Centre for Human Rabies (NRC Rabies: financed by the National Institute for health and Invalidity Insurance, RIZIV-INAMI) and the National Reference Laboratory for Animal Rabies (NRL Rabies: recognized by the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, FAVV-AFSCA, and OIE). The lab is also recognized by the European Commission to perform rabies serology in pets in the frame of travel. The rabies laboratory is embedded within our clinical laboratory that performs diagnosis of rare, dangerous or vaccine-preventable human infectious diseases (LMM).

Both human and animal rabies diagnosis and surveillance are thus centralized in the same laboratory, which is also tightly associated with the Belgian centre for post exposure prophylaxis against rabies in humans.

Our rabies lab has been around for more than hundred years and was always closely involved in the history of rabies in Belgium. We were implicated in the oral vaccination campaigns in foxes in the eighties and nineties, which led to the official elimination of fox rabies in Belgium in 2001.

 

History of rabies in Belgium

1922	Last local human case
1930	Elimination canine rabies
1966-99	Epidemic in foxes (33 years)
1989-2001	Oral vaccination campaigns foxes
1990	Last human import case
1998	Last fox case (Bastogne)
1999	Last case cow (Bastogne)
2001	OIE declares Belgium rabies-free
2007	1 import case dog (Morocco)
2008	1 import case dog (Gambia)
2010	1 import case bat (Spain)
2004 -2015	11 years of bat surveillance: no local cases in bats detected so-far

Our lab performs serological tests by the virus-neutralisation method (RFFIT) in both humans (to validate the efficacy of preventive vaccination and post exposure treatment) and pets (in the framework of pet travel). Our diagnosis and serology methods are accredited according to ISO17025 and ISO15189 standards.

A passive surveillance system for domestic animals and wildlife is maintained in Belgium. Each year, we analyse about 300-400 suspected domestic animals and 20-200 suspected wild animals in the frame of rabies surveillance and to guarantee the country’s rabies-free status.

Our laboratory is involved in several projects concerning prevention, treatment and pathogenesis of rabies:

♦ Use of the rabies model to study the impact of cell death (caspases, RIPK) and inflammation (NF-κB) signalling pathways on the outcome of viral brain infection

♦ Assessment of the efficacy of abbreviated intradermal vaccination schedules (one-day and two-day treatments): several clinical trials are running in collaboration with the Military Hospital Queen Astrid (Brussels) and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp)

♦ Exploring and expanding therapeutic uses and applicability of therapeutic heavy-chain derived single variable domains: Nanobodies® (VHH) as a new strategy for prevention and treatment of rabies

The rabies laboratory, embedded within the Viral Disease Service of the institute, is supervised by Dr. Bernard Brochier. Dr. Brochier is a life-long expert in rabies and was actively involved in the fox vaccination and rabies elimination program in Belgium in the past. His current interests involve rabies and emerging zoonoses in wildlife, including tick-borne encephalitis virus and other rodent-borne viruses.

The rabies team is further composed of Dr. Steven Van Gucht (DVM, PhD and head of the Viral Disease Service), Dr. Vanessa Suin (PhD), Magali Wautier (MSc), Dr. Jean Vanderpas (MD, PhD), Dr. Raymond Vanhoof (MD, PhD), ) and 3 laboratory techniciens:  Marie-Louise Blondiau, Sophie Lamoral, and Aurélie Francart. Magda Bégard, Véronique Verhocht and Fabien Berger assist in the administration and call centre. Currently, we also have 2 PhD students (Sanne Terryn, Elodie Kip) working on projects involving rabies prevention, treatment and pathogenesis.