♦ 31 March 2015 ♦

As announced last month, the EURL laboratory network is invited to participate in the annual overview of tests performed in the NRLs. This year the survey is undertaken online. Deadline for submission is postponed to 10th April.

The questionnaire can be found here. Should you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.
 

♦ 31 March 2015 ♦

The 2015 rabies diagnostic inter-laboratory test will be undertaken on a unique panel of 9 samples. As usual, laboratories will be able to test their performance for 4 techniques: FAT (Fluorescent Antibody Test), RTCIT (Rabies Tissue Culture Infection Test), Conventional RT-PCR and Real-Time RT-PCR. The panel will be sent to laboratories on 1st June 2015. Results will have to be returned to Anses-Nancy before 1st July 2015, along with the answers to the online questionnaires for each technique tested. These questionnaires are used to compare the procedures of laboratories, and to highlight the influence of the variations on the results obtained during this inter-laboratory trial, when applicable. Non EU Member State National Reference Laboratories are allowed to participate to this test under certain conditions. Registration for the inter-laboratory test for rabies diagnosis is now closed. A total of 48 laboratories have registered.
 

♦ 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

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.

♦ 24 February 2015 ♦

The annual meeting for the EURL for rabies will take place this year in Zagreb, Croatia. The meeting will be held on the same basis than the last one, over 2 half days, on 27th May afternoon and 28th May 2015 morning. Registration is currently ongoing. The agenda will include talks from the National Reference Laboratories and the EURL on molecular biology analysis for rabies diagnosis and the ongoing standardisation of these methods at a European level. The results of the inter-laboratory tests for both diagnosis and biomarker assessment organised by the EURL for rabies in 2014 will be presented, completed with a synthesis of the results of the tests from the former years, and an analysis of the trend of performance over time. Presentations on news and research achievements from some colleagues will also be made during this meeting. On 27th May evening, a dinner will be kindly organised by the Croatian National Reference Laboratory for rabies.

♦ 02 March 2015 ♦

In 2013, the EURL initiated a cross-platform evaluation of the PCR performance of ten commercial SYBR Green® kits ( five two-step kits and five one-step kits) using real-time SYBR Green PCR assays (one-step and two-step methods).   We found that the optimised one-step PCR assays had a higher detection sensitivity than the optimised two-step assays regardless of the machine used as well as the pivotal influence of the thermocycler on PCR performance, as well as that of the master mixes.
The results of the comparison of the two types of methods (one-step versus two-step) of the Real Time SYBR Green® RT-PCR were presented in 2013 during the 6th workshop for Rabies NRLs in Athens, Greece: “Comparison of different commercial SYBR Green® RT-PCR kits” and also in 2014 in the 25th International Meeting of Rabies in the Americas (RITA, Cancun, Mexico). See presentation.
The results of this study are now in open access on the BioMed Research International website. See publication

♦ 02 March 2015 ♦

Data collection ongoing
 
Each beginning of year, the EURL laboratory network is invited to participate in the annual overview of tests performed in the NRLs.
This work ensures a continuous monitoring of rabies test results carried out in the Community that are then shared within the NRLs community.
This year the survey is undertaken online and has to be filled out before 31st March 2015. The questionnaire can be found here.
Should you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

♦ 09 January 2015 ♦ In this beginning of year 2015, we are please to introduce you to our brand new website. Although it has been totally new-looked, you will be able to get back to all the information you used to find in the previous one. This site will be much more interactive than before, and we will endeavour to add all necessary and interesting information in it in the coming months. To be able to access all the pages of the site (strains and products catalogue, full documentation, EURL reports, etc...), you will have to register using your personal login. For login instructions, please contact us.
 

♦ 05 January 2015 ♦ The whole team of the EURL for rabies wishes you peace, joy and prosperity throughout the coming year. Thank you for your continued support and collaboration and may 2015 be full of projects together! Happy new year to all of you.
 

♦ 18 December 2014 ♦ An inter-laboratory test for rabies diagnosis intended for National Reference Laboratories will be held in June 2015. As usual, four techniques will be tested on a panel of 9 samples: FAT (Fluorescent Antibody Test), RTCIT (Rabies Tissue Culture Infection Test) Conventional RT-PCR Real-Time RT-PCR, and an online questionnaire will have to be filled in for each technique. The test is opened to non-EU countries upon certain conditions available on request. Registration is currently open.