The use of various immunochemical, biochemical and biological methods for the analysis of rabies virus production in tissue cultures.

For the preparation of rabies vaccines, virus was grown in cultures of primary cells (bovine fetal kidney) or heteroploid cell lines (Hak and Vero). Comparative analysis of concentrated and/or purified antigen has shown a good correlation between the protective capacity (as determined by the NIH test for potency) on one hand, and hemagglutinating titer, optical absorbance at 280 nm and glycoprotein content (evaluated by the Enzyme-Immuno Assay - EIA) on the other. Furthermore, the evaluation of the respective content of glycoprotein and nucleoprotein (EIA) before and after impairment of viral membrane can be done to know if the rabies glycoprotein is anchored in an intact membrane or not (soluble glycoprotein). In addition, a good correlation has been obtained for the virus harvest between the NIH-test and the EIA-glycoprotein titer. In the light of the easy and rapid application of Enzyme-Immunoassay it is suggested that this technique be used for the analysis and evaluation of expected potency of virus harvest during rabies vaccine production.