ABSTRACT
Rhabdoviruses have been recognized as causing infections in all major orders of vertebrates except the amphibia, and in arthropods and plants as well. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) may be propagated in many animal systems or in cell culture systems of extraordinarily diverse origins. The most practical precise assay of rabies virus is obtained by plaque assay, a technique currently only applicable to cell culture-adapted fixed strains of virus. Rabies virus and its components may be assayed by the complement-fixation test. Although rabies virus was successfully transmitted to experimental animals as early as 1879, its growth either in vivo or in vitro is often so slow that rabies has sometimes been included among the "slow virus" diseases. The description of "single-cycle" growth curves in rabies virus-infected cells has not been entirely satisfactory because (as indicated by immunofluorescent studies) cell infection proceeds asynchronously even with very high input multiplicities.
