Utah Public Health Laboratory Rabies Virus Detection and
Reporting
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Why do we test animals for rabies?
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Prevent unnecessary PEP Why? In most instances, observation or
testing will rule out rabies.
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How do you get the animal to the lab Hand delivery Courier
service Mail delivery
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What time should it get to the lab? Most samples received by
10:00 a.m. will be reported same-day. Samples received after 11:00
a.m. will typically be reported the next business day 8am 5 pm
Monday Friday (closed holidays)
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How useful is a result that cant be trusted?
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DO Refrigerate animal heads Send to the lab immediately (within
3 days) Ship with cool packs DONT Send putrid or decaying animal
heads Dig up an animal that has been buried for a week Expect a
package without ice packs to survive the heat of July!
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How do you test for rabies? First- we open the package in a
biological safety cabinet. Live bats need to be labled!
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How do you test for rabies? Second We remove very specific
portions of the brain for testing.
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How do you test for rabies? Multiple impressions of each brain
section are made on slides Slides are dried (30 min), then fixed in
acetone for a minimum of 1 hour.
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How do you test for rabies? For every group of slides, a known
positive and negative slide are prepared and treated identically to
the test group. Slides are stained with direct fluorescent
antibodies for 30 minutes, then rinsed and washed repeatedly (1
hour).
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How do you test for rabies? Each slide (at least 4 per animal)
are meticulously read on a fluorescent microscope.
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How do you test for rabies? Reading Slides is tedious, time
consuming, and requires intense concentration. Negative
slidePositive Slide
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How do you test for rabies? But sometimes its obvious!
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How do we get results? Results can be reported via secure fax,
secure email, or traditional mail. Multiple email addresses can be
ccd
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Secure Email FAQs Secure email requires a password associated
with your email address.
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Secure Email FAQs Always Download the attachment (NEVER click
view) Check spam folder and mark as safe
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Secure Email FAQs Some email providers make it look simple.
Like you can just enter your password from the body of the email.
You still need to download the attachment
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Secure Email FAQs Remember your password! If you enter an
incorrect password 3x, youll have trouble!
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Final Results in PDF format
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How much does a rabies test cost?
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Each animal tested costs $95 (supplies, reagents, and tech
time) Laboratory currently subsidizes 80%-100% of cost
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How much does a rabies test cost In the near future, lab will
only subsidize cost for animals which meet compendium guidelines or
have approval from state epidemiologist All other testing will be
offered at cost
