Oral Rabies Vaccine Strain SPBN GASGAS: Genetic Stability after Serial In Vitro and In Vivo Passaging.

Oral vaccination of wildlife has shown to be a very effective management tool in rabies control. Evaluation of the genetic stability of vaccine viruses before distributing vaccine baits in the environment is essential because all available oral rabies vaccines, including the genetically engineered rabies virus vaccine strain SPBN GASGAS (Rabitec), are based on replication-competent viruses. To evaluate the genetic stability of this vaccine strain, five serial passages of the Master Seed Virus (MSV) in the production cell line BHK21 Cl13 were performed.