Domestic microwave processing for rapid immunohistochemical diagnosis of bovine rabies

The present study describes the use of a microwave processing protocol for the rapid histopathological and immunohistochemical diagnosis of bovine rabies. Immunohistochemistry has been used for rabies diagnosis in formalin-fixed tissue with satisfactory results, although the time to diagnosis is considerably longer than that with direct immunofluorescence. The protocol provided a provisory histopathological rabies diagnosis in approximately three and half hours and the immunohistochemical diagnosis was available after six hours. The protocol achieved 100% correlation with direct immunofluorescence and is a promising method, particularly in situations in which only material in formalin is available for diagnosis or when the refrigeration or transportation of biological material is difficult.