1) The study aimed to determine antibody titers against rabies in unimmunized adult stray and domestic dogs in Sri Lanka. 2) Blood samples were taken from 29 stray dogs and 34 domestic dogs that received annual vaccinations over 360 days. 3) The results showed that a significantly higher percentage of domestic dogs maintained antibody titers above the WHO recommendation of 0.5 IU/ml compared to stray dogs that received a single vaccination. 4) The conclusions were that annual revaccination is needed to maintain protective antibody titers in domestic dogs, while a single vaccination is not sufficient for stray dogs.

1. Determination of antibody titres in adult stray/free roaming and domestic canines against anti-rabies immunization by RFFIT A Preliminary report Pimburage R M S 1 , Gunatilake M 2 , Wimalaratne O 3 , Balasuriya A 4 , Perera K A D N 3 1 Deprtment of Public Health Veterinary Services, Ministry of Health 2 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo 08 3 Department of Rabies Research and Vaccine Quality control, Medical Research Institute, Colombo 08 4 Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

5. Dogs were recruited from Kalutara district Method

7. Comparison of AB titers Results

8. Results * Significantly higher (<0.05) than stray population Percentage of Canines with AB titres above 0.5 IU/ml (WHO Recommendation) Group Day 0 Day 30 Day 180 Day 360 Stray/ Free roaming (n=29) 10.3 % 68.9% 89.6% 62.1% Domestic (n=34) 76.5 %* 91.2% 85.3% 82.4%

12. Thank You