RESUMO
According to WHO the most effective way to reduce the incidence of annual human rabies, is through vaccination of dogs and cats, since 90% of human cases are due to bites mainly from canines infected with the virus. The level of protection of dogs vaccinated against rabies varies significantly between countries of the region. The objective of this study was to evaluate the humoral immune response against rabies, in dogs with some kind of "immune modulation" experimentally induced. Dogs were immunized with polyvalent (Group 1), monovalent (Group 2) vaccines, and immunized during surgical castration (Group 3), dogs treated with triamcinolone acetonide (steroids) during immunization (Group 4) or vaccinated simultaneously with a commercial immunostimulant (Group 5). The results indicate that in all cases, the majority of animals could exceed the minimum limit of antibodies to be protected according to the WHO (0.5UI / ml). However, significant differences (p <0.05) in the use of mono- or polyvalent vaccines, the use of corticosteroids at the time of immunization and vaccination during surgical castration was found.