Assessing Rabies Vaccine Protection against a Novel Lyssavirus, Kotalahti Bat Lyssavirus

Rabies is a fatal encephalitis caused by an important group of viruses within the Lyssavirus genus. The prototype virus, rabies still most commonly reported lyssavirus and causes approximately 59,000 human fatalities annually. animal burden other species undefined. original reports for novel lyssavirus, Kotalahti bat (KBLV), were based on detection viral RNA alone. In this report we describe successful generation live recombinant cSN-KBLV; where full-length genome clone RABV vaccine strain, SAD-B19, was constructed with glycoprotein KBLV. Subsequent in vitro characterisation cSN-KBLV described here. addition, ability to confer protective immunity vivo following challenge virus assessed. Naïve or vaccinated mice infected intracerebrally dose 100 focus-forming units/30 µL all naïve 8% (n = 1/12) succumbed challenge, whilst 92% 11/12) survived end experiment. This provides strong evidence cross-neutralisation cross-protection using purified Vero cell vaccine.