Abstract
The Rabies Prevention Act does not require the mandatory vaccination of juvenile dogs of less than 91 days of age. On the other hand, in Japan, there are not many research reports about the prevalence of maternal antibodies in juvenile dogs. We therefore investigated the prevalence of rabies-neutralizing antibodies in juvenile dogs of less than 91 days of age. At the same time, considering cases in which rabies occurs, we investigated changes in the neutralizing antibody titer of the rabies vaccination in juvenile dogs reared in standard homes. As a result, of 216 juvenile dogs examined, only 34 had more than 8 times the neutralizing antibody titer. In addition, regardless of the presence or absence of maternal antibodies, the neutralizing antibody titer did not reach constant or sufficient levels after the immunization of juvenile dogs with a single dose of rabies vaccine. However, the neutralizing antibody titer reached sufficient levels following additional vaccination.
