Effective postexposure treatment of rabies-infected sheep with rabies immune globulin and vaccine.

An experiment to assess the efficiency of the treatment recommended for humans after exposure to rabies was conducted in 68 sheep experimentally infected with a fox rabies virus. The infected sheep were divided into three groups and were given either a cell-culture vaccine (on the day of infection, then at day 3, 7, 14), human rabies immunoglobulin (26 IU kg-1 on the day of infection) or a combination of the vaccine immunoglobulin. The latter combination was the only treatment found to be effective in 100% of the animals, as 71% of the controls died. This model appears to be useful in assessing new regimens of postexposure treatment for humans as well as in the reconsideration of its feasibility, or validity, in animals.