Rabies remains an important public health issue in Bolivia, South America. Public concern and fears are most focussed on dogs as the source of rabies. The objective of the present study was to assess immunity of an inactivated suckling mouse brain vaccine against canine rabies used for the official vaccination campaigns under field conditions in an endemic area of rabies in Bolivia. A total of 236 vaccinated and 44 unvaccinated dogs in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, selected using stratified random sampling, were investigated in order to obtain owned dog characteristics and antibody titres against rabies in April 2007. The proportion of vaccinated dogs with an antibody titre exceeded the protection threshold value of 0.5 EU/ml was 58% [95% confidence intervals (CI): 52-65], indicating that vaccination is likely to elicit an antibody response (odds ratio 6.3, 95% CI: 1.2-11.5). The range of geometric mean of antibody titre for vaccinated dogs (0.89 EU/ml; 95% CI: 0.75-1.04) was considered to meet the minimal acceptable level indicating an adequate immune response to the vaccine. However, the titre level was not satisfactory in comparison with the results from other field investigations with inactivated tissue culture vaccines. It is recommended for public health authorities to (1) consider modernizing their vaccine manufacturing method because the level of immunity induced by the current vaccine is comparably low, (2) conduct frequent vaccination campaigns to maintain high levels of vaccination coverage, and (3) actively manage the domestic dog population in the study area, which is largely responsible for rabies maintenance.

Bolivia currently has one of the highest numbers of cases for human and canine rabies and is thus clue to the elimination process. The objective of the present study was to assess antibody seroprevalences against rabies in dogs vaccinated under field conditions and other factors that might influence the success of the on-going rabies control programmes in an endemic area of the disease, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. All 240 study animals, selected using area-stratified random sampling, were investigated in April 2007. Test prevalences were adjusted for the imperfect test characteristics using the Rogan-Gladen estimator (deterministic and stochastic functions) and Bayesian inference. Ninety-four of the tested 240 vaccinated dogs were classified as test-positive for rabies-specific antibodies. With regard to adjusted overall antibody seroprevalence, Bayesian true prevalence estimates (41%, 95% CI: 37-46%) were lower than both of the Rogan-Gladen estimates. The effect of various epidemiological factors on post-vaccination response was also assessed.