Post-exposure rabies treatment in pigs

A rabid dog invaded a Thai pig farm and severely mauled 11 adult pigs. This offered an opportunity to study efficacy of a human type post-exposure vaccine regimen with and without rabies immunoglobulin. A commercial veterinary tissue culture rabies vaccine and equine rabies immune globulin were used. All pigs survived for 1 year following the exposure. All animals developed detectable rabies neutralizing antibodies on day 7 and levels over 0.5IU/ml on day 14. This small study suggests that post-exposure rabies treatment using a proven human regimen, applied to valuable farm animals, can be safe and effective.