Attempts to Manipulate Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test for Detection of Rabies Virus Antigen in Mouse Brain

Direct Fluorescent Antibody (DFA) Test for detection of rabies antigen was carried out with attempts in manipulating the standard protocols based on OIE. This study was aimed to achieve improvements of a more rapid detection by conducting modification that could help in reducing the time consume, and costs for obtaining results. The main purpose of this study is to modify the routine protocols for rapid viral detection of rabies virus in tissue. The manipulation that had been practiced was mainly on the fixation procedure with high grade cold acetone, temperature and time of incubation. The working dilution of the Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC) was (10-1, 10-2, 10-3). Experimental trial on brain samples from 10 rats were obtained and spiked with highest concentration of rabies vaccine for the study. The staining intensity result was analyzed and calculated using T-test. The results indicate a variety of intensity for staining and grading of the fluorescent based of the manipulated protocol conducted.