Vol. 13, Issue 2 (2024)

Rabies is fatal neurotropic disease caused by Rabies virus and other Lyssavirus species of the family Rhabdoviridae. The fluorescent antibody test (FAT) is a rapid, sensitive, specific method for diagnosing rabies in humans and animals and is the gold standard for diagnosis. Over the last thirty years, molecular methods for diagnosing rabies that rely on finding the genetic makeup of the virus have gained increased acceptance. The development of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) provided an alternative method for post-mortem diagnosis and enabled ante-mortem diagnosis. In this study, we compared the application of FAT and RT-PCR for confirmatory diagnosis of rabies in suspected brain samples of animals from different parts of Kerala, India. Thirty-six brain samples from dog, cat, goat, horse, jackal and mongoose were subjected to both tests. The results support the utility of RT-PCR as a confirmatory diagnostic test. In samples of degraded brain tissue, RT-PCR is more sensitive in detecting the rabies virus.