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VLA Rabies & Wildlife Zoonoses Group

The VLA Rabies and Wildlife Zoonoses Group is actively involved in a wide range of research and surveillance programmes. The Group comprises virologists, immunologists and molecular biologists who are responsible for the laboratory diagnosis of rabies in both animals and humans and also for serological testing. We manage a number of surveillance programmes of UK domestic and wildlife species including bats.

We also provide a consultancy service to Defra and other international organisations (WHO/OIE) and manage a number of EU and Defra driven research projects including investigations into rabies molecular epidemiology, pathogenesis and host cell responses.

Research

Defra funded research projects enable studies into the pathogenesis, host cell responses and molecular epidemiology of rabies viruses and European bat lyssaviruses.

The findings of national and international collaborative studies have been published in a number of peer reviewed journals.

Under our remit as a WHO Collaborating Centre, VLA has assisted international colleagues in the identification of viral strains responsible for human and animal rabies incidents and offered training in rabies diagnostic techniques.

The Group also leads/contributes to workpackages in the EU funded programmes Med-Vet-Net and Epizone.

Surveillance

In 2003, active bat surveillance programmes were initiated in Scotland and England (funded by Defra and Scottish Natural Heritage).

Daubenton’s and serotine bats, two common bat species in the UK, are routinely captured, ringed, sampled and released.

Blood is taken and tested for the presence of antibodies specific to EBLV. Mouth swabs are collected and the saliva is tested by RT-PCR and virus isolation to determine if EBLV is present in the saliva of healthy bats.

Finally, a very small wing biopsy is taken for bat speciation.

For further information, see our page on methods for diagnosing rabies.

On 21 May 2005, Defra released the preliminary test results from the 2004 work in England carried out by our group. This indicated a prevalence of antibodies to EBLV-2 in Daubenton's bats in England of about 4.2%.

However, infectious virus has not been detected in the saliva of any bat tested under the active surveillance programme. Further work on EBLV presence in England is ongoing as part of a three year study.