Zeitschrift für Veterinärwissenschaft und medizinische Diagnose

Utility of Skin Biopsy Sample for Rabies Diagnosis in Dogs

Gowri Yale,Reeta Subramaniam Mani, Patchimuthu I.Ganesan, Shampur Narayan Madhusudana, Anita Mahadevan,Susarla K. Shankar, Mangalanathan Vijayabharathi, Sampada Sudarshan and Shaheen Taj

Utility of Skin Biopsy Sample for Rabies Diagnosis in Dogs

Background: Rabies is endemic to India and is the most feared disease of all times. Dogs are the main vectors of rabies in India contributing to more than 90% of human rabies cases. Presently, confirmatory diagnosis of rabies in dogs is done by fluorescent antibody test (FAT) on brain tissue from a dead dog. However, obtaining brain tissue by necropsy poses several hazards and hence there is a need to evaluate alternative methods for diagnosis of canine rabies. The present study evaluated the utility of nuchal skin biopsy sample for the detection of rabies in dogs.