♦ 03 April 2015 ♦ The Laboratory for Rabies is one of the three laboratories in the department of virology at Croatian Veterinary Institute. Since 2011 Laboratory is recognized as a National Reference Laboratory for Rabies. The laboratory is also a EU approved laboratory for serological testing regarding rabies in dogs, cats and ferrets in the frame of pets travel. Main laboratory routine activities are connected with rabies surveillance and rabies monitoring programs. Monitoring program is conducted as a part of oral vaccination campaigns which has been started in 2011. During 2014 around 1000 samples have been tested as a part of surveillance program and around 3000 samples as part of monitoring program. The last rabies positive case has been recorded in February 2014.   Methods In laboratory the following methods are used: o Fluorescence antibody test (FAT), o Fluorescence virus neutralisation test (FAVN), o Tissue culture infective test (TCIT), o Molecular techniques (RT-PCR and QRT-PCR), o Complete genome sequencing, o OTC determination, o Age determination o Baits titration. FAT and FAVN methods are accredited according to ISO17025.   Fields of research Laboratory Research activities are mainly connected with rabies particularly in the field of Rabies epidemiology and diagnostic techniques. Recently, the research regarding stem cells and viral metagenomic were ongoing.     Staff The Laboratory represented by six agents is headed by Dr Tomislav Bedeković: Ivana Lojkić, Scientist; PhD in molecular biology, Deputy Head Nina Krešić, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Ivana Šimić, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine; Ines Ugrin, Technician Mirjana Frljužec, Technician Recent rabies publication: Bedeković, T., Lemo N, Lojkić I, Mihaljević Z, Jungić A, Cvetnić Z, Cač Z, Hostnik P. (2013). Modification of the fluorescent antibody virus neutralisation test - elimination of the cytotoxic effect for the detection of rabies virus neutralising antibodies. Journal of Virological Methods.  189, 204-208. Lojkić, Ivana; Bedeković, Tomislav; Čač, Željko; Lemo, Nina; Cvetnić, Željko (2013). Clinical rabies in cattle imported into Croatia. Veterinary record. 172, 22-23. Lojkić, Ivana; Čač, Željko; Bedeković, Tomislav; Lemo, Nina; Brstilo, Mate; Müller, Thomas; Freuling, Conrad M. (2012). Diversity of currently circulating rabies virus strains in Croatia. Berliner und Münchener tierärztliche Wochenschrift. 125, 249-254.  

♦ 30 April 2015 ♦ [Relayed from the OIE website] World Veterinary Day was instigated by the World Veterinary Association (WVA) in 2000 to be celebrated annually on the last Saturday of April. In 2008 the WVA and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) agreed on the creation of the World Veterinary Day Award aimed at rewarding the most successful celebration of the contribution of the veterinary profession to society. The winner of the 2015 Award will be announced at the Opening Ceremony of the OIE 83rd General Session to be held in Paris, France on 24 May 2015 and will be invited to the 32nd World Veterinary Congress, 13-17 September in Istanbul, Turkey where he/she will receive the price of 1.000 US$. The competition is open to all WVA veterinary associations, alone, or in cooperation with any other selected veterinary body. The selected theme for 2015 are the vector-borne diseases with a zoonotic potential. More info on http://www.oie.int/en/for-the-media/press-releases/detail/article/world-veterinary-day-award-2015/  

♦ 19 April 2015 ♦ Pr. Paul Pierre Pastoret, professor of Virology at the Veterinary Faculty of Liège (Belgium), sadly died this month. He was very world widely known in the veterinary community. At the end of the 1980s, he has initiated the development of the recombinant Vaccinia-Rabies virus vaccine and its use in the field for oral vaccination of wildlife in Belgium. He worked closely with the rabies scientists of Anses-Nancy to organize field trials of oral vaccination at borders and in research projects. He is one of the key scientists as regards the vulpine rabies elimination in Belgium in 2001 and is internationally famous all over Europe and the United States of America. His contribution through scientific publications and books to the study of several other animal viruses (such as herpesvirus, pestivirus and rotavirus) is also world-widely recognized. The EURL for rabies addresses its most sincerest condolences to both his family and colleagues. Besides the immense professional competence and knowledge of Paul Pierre, we will keep in memory his generosity, humanity, honesty and  his sense of humour.

♦ 04 May 2015 ♦ A panel of 9 brain samples will be sent to all laboratories on the same day and under the same conditions. Date of shipment is 1st June 2015. Laboratories which have sent all documents (import permit when needed, and unilateral commitment fully initialled, signed and stamped) before this date will receive the panel. In order to respect the time schedule and to have all results included in the final report, the test will have to be undertaken in the course of June and results will have to be sent back to the EURL for rabies on 1st July at the latest, along with the answers given on the online questionnaires. As usual, there will be one questionnaire for each technique. Participants will be invited to fill one questionnaire per each tested technique. The final report should be issued in early Autumn 2015.  

♦ 30 April 2015 ♦ The rabies EURL annual meeting will gather 55 people. This meeting will bring together National Reference Labs from Member States and from third countries bordering EU, including those from North Africa. On the first half-day, presentations will focus on the techniques relative to oral vaccination control and rabies update from several participating countries. On the second half-day, European (EFSA) and Global Institutions (WHO, IAEA) will present their activities before the diagnostic and the molecular biology sessions. The last update of the agenda can be found here.  

♦ 30 April 2015 ♦ Each year, the EURL is in charge of elaborating a technical report detailing all rabies activities undertaken and their outputs in the frame of the regulations No 737/2008 and 415/2013. The document is available for members of the EURL network (need to use your login and password to open the restricted access of the website).  

ECDC have just informed us that the surveillance report on seven priority food- and waterborne diseases in the EU/EEA 2010-2012 was published on 7th April: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/food-and-waterborne-diseases-surveillance-report-2015.pdf Listerioris surveillance is the topic of the 2nd chapter.

The NRLs' contact received yesterday the invitation for the upcoming workshop dedicated to staphylococcal enterotoxins. We are looking forward to seeing you in May. The EURL CPS Team Picture: Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute - http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe-srv/view/images/entry

♦ 1st April 2015 ♦ In the frame of its mandate of EURL for rabies serology (Council Decision 2000/258/EC), the Anses-Nancy laboratory for rabies and wildlife, France, organizes each year inter-laboratory aptitude tests for the purposes of Member States or third countries authorization to carry out the serological tests to monitor the effectiveness of the anti-rabies vaccination. A favourable result of the appraisal of the applicant laboratory documented by the ANSES-Nancy laboratory is a pre-requisite for the appraisal. This year, 67 laboratories will participate to the inter-laboratory aptitude test for rabies serology. Sending of the panels will be proceeded around the end of April 2015. Read more about Approved Laboratories in the EU and in Third Countries (ec.europa.eu)  

♦ 30 March 2015 ♦ As announced last month, the EURL laboratory network is invited to participate in the annual overview of tests performed in the NRLs. This year the survey is undertaken online. Deadline for submission is postponed to 15th April... Read more news about the annual overview of tests performed in the NRLs