Rabies, a fatal neurological disease of warm blooded animals, is not only a national but also a global problem. It is caused by a RNA virus under the genus Lyssavirus and family Rhabdoviridae. The disease is of paramount importance because of its global distribution, wide host range including a number of wild animals and extremely high case fatality rate. In spite of development of anti-rabies vaccine by Pasteur in 1885, the disease is still endemic in about 100 countries in the world where 2.5 thousand million people live. The dog is the main perpetuator of rabies in developing country including India, it is to be emphasized to bring all the dogs under immunization umbrella or to control the unauthorized stray dogs. Over the time, there is lot of development in the field of immunology, vaccinology and diagnostic arena, the disease is still endemic particularly in developing countries . Few countries viz., USA, Canada, France have employed the recombinant vaccinia virus based bait and succeeded in controlling the wildlife rabies to a great extent. However, cooperation and collaboration of people from the different field should work in a coordinated manner to control the rabies in animals particularly the stray dogs, main source of infection to animals and human beings.
展开▼
