The rabies peripheral challenge test: more accurate determination of vaccine potency.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) rabies vaccine potency test is used internationally for evaluating the efficacy of inactivated rabies vaccines, despite concerns about its methods. An alternative test has been developed, using a simplified in vivo method for rabies vaccine testing which has several advantages over the currently recommended method of efficacy testing. The rabies peripheral challenge test more closely models practical vaccine application in target species; decreases the observed effect of vaccine virus strain in testing results and allows sensitive analysis of vaccine and production lot testing.