Attenuated Vaccines for Veterinary Use

Modern cell culture methods became available for large-scale production of rabies virus (RABV) during the early 1960s. Live attenuated RABV vaccines produced in brain tissue and primary cells are still used for veterinary purposes in certain countries. However, due to safety concerns and the availability of suitable continuous cell lines, the production of such vaccines should be discontinued. Actually, the use of conventional live attenuated RABV vaccines in general is not recommended for domestic animals, and should be restricted to oral vaccination of free-roaming animals. Protective immunity against RABV induced after orally administered vaccine can only be achieved using a replication-competent vaccine virus. This chapter describes the production of a live attenuated RABV vaccine using a continuous cell line.