Estudo do comportamento de variantes antigênicas do virus da raiva, isoladas no Brasil, em camundongos

A study comparing four antigenic variants of reabies virus, two of them grouped as a dog strain (C/PI and C/rn), and the other two, as a bovine strain (B/RN) and B/AL), isolated in the Northeastern of Brazil, was carried out. All the strains were antigenically identified by the monoclonal antibodies technique. These variants were inoculated into groups of 37 days-old mice, intracerebrally, with 0.03 ml of the viral dilution containing 50 LD50 of virus. The animals were observed for 30 days, considering the clinical observation periods (incubation and illness). The results showed behavioral differences among the four variants, independent of the nucleocapsid antigenic profile