♦ 28 September 2016 ♦ On 28 September 2016, on the occasion of World Rabies Day, WHO, OIE, and FAO published a joint statement to call on countries to accelerate efforts to combat rabies in three steps: Education, by raising awareness of rabies among at-risk populations, Vaccination, by implementing large-scale dog vaccination and ensuring prompt delivery of post-exposure treatment to humans in areas at risk of rabies and Elimination, by targeting a world free from dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030. Full statement is available on http://www.oie.int.  

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ Sad news for our community, as we heard that our colleague from Austria passed away beginning of September. She was an eminent scientist of our network who attended several times the annual workshop. We will remember her as a kind and discrete colleague. All our thoughts go to her family friends and Austrian colleagues.  

♦ 01 October 2016 ♦ A new website edited by the Tunisian Ministry of Health (DSSB) entirely dedicated to rabies in Tunisia and the ways to fight the disease is now online. Apart from usual general rabies information about the disease and the action to undertake in case of a bite, this website provides interesting information on the rabies epidemiology in Tunisia, the National Programme and the vaccination campaign ongoing in this country. This website is currently mainly in French and Arabic, but will be later extended to English language.

Note prepared by the EU RL for Honeybee Health (Laboratory of  Anses Sophia Antipolis) Updated news (29th. November 2016) To see the details of the outbreaks observed in 2015, please click here. 

♦ 01 September 2016 ♦ After a nice summer break, back to serious work! As usual the autumn season will be synonym of reports releases and international meetings… Enjoy these busy coming weeks!  

♦ 13 September 2016 ♦ The 2016 session of the inter-laboratory test for rabies diagnosis was undertaken by 54 laboratories, including 28 non-EUMS laboratories. The report is under proofreading and should be available at the end of this month. Caution! Each participating laboratory will receive an online satisfaction questionnaire regarding this test. Thank you to take time to fill it carefully.  

♦13 September 2016 ♦ The annual rabies EURL meeting gathered a total of 44 participants, among them 30 from the EU Member States and 10 from EU bordering countries. As usual, the meeting gave the opportunity for rabies scientists to meet all together ending with fruitful exchanges. The report of 8th workshop for rabies is now available online in the private part of the EURL for rabies website.  

♦ 13 September 2016 ♦ The last results for the 2016 session of the inter-laboratory test for rabies serology have now reached the EURL for rabies serology. Results and report will be communicated soon to the participating laboratories, as well as the European Commission and relevant authorities where necessary. This test is compulsory for the purposes of laboratories authorisations to carry out the serological tests to monitor the effectiveness of the anti-rabies vaccination. More information on http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/pet-movement/approved-labs/index_en.htm  

♦ 13 September 2016 ♦ The first session of proficiency test on serological techniques performed in the frame of rabies control programmes in wildlife (monitoring of oral vaccination) will soon be launched. The main objective of this proficiency test will be to have a global overview of the performances of the techniques and protocols undertaken by the NRLs to titrate the rabies antibodies in wildlife samples. Considering the number of different techniques in use in the EU (seroneutralisation tests and ELISA tests), an ultimate objective for next years would be to try to get a better harmonization of results obtained by the NRL.  

♦ 28 September 2016 ♦ World rabies day will have a special taste this year as 2016 will be the tenth edition. Should you plan to do something special for this year, do not forget to register on the Global Alliance for Rabies Control website. Thank you to the countries of our network which already advertised: In Europe and North Africa, we noted that Britain will give a talk and fundraise for Mission Rabies, a vet in Spain is offering a 40% discount on pet vaccines, the Croatian Veterinary Institute plans to visit schools and university for rabies awareness and Egypt is pressuring GOVS to adopt GARC, OIE and WHO recommendations through the AWAR (Animal Welfare Awareness Research) programme. Thank you to all of you!