Rabies is a fatal viral disease spread through animal bites that kills over 50,000 people per year globally. While vaccination can prevent rabies in exposed people, there are currently no effective antiviral treatments for human rabies infections. This study evaluated two methods, cytopathic effect inhibition and MTT assay, for screening potential anti-rabies drugs in vitro, and found that only cytopathic effect inhibition was suitable for detecting antiviral activity against rabies in infected McCoy cells.