**1. Introduction**

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162 Trends in Infectious Diseases

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Infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses, are recognized as the sources of serious problems that affect public and animal health around the world. Emerging infectious diseases have been reported at an unprecedented rate since the 1970s and a large proportion of these diseases are considered to be zoonoses [1]. However, reemerging zoonoses are also affecting public health around the world, in particular rabies, a classic zoonosis that is problematic in Africa and Asia, while new outbreaks have occurred in areas that were previously free of this disease, such as the islands of Flores and Bali in Indonesia [2].

Thus, research and technology development have been promoted for controlling emerging and reemerging zoonoses in developed countries. In the case of rabies, the research and technology developed to prevent this disease has been advancing. Rabies is a vaccinepreventable disease, so a vaccine has been developed. The type of vaccine produced using animal nervous tissues has been progressively replaced by safer and more immunogenic vaccines, which are purified from cell culture supernatants. In addition, new replicative vaccines have been developed for the oral vaccination of wildlife, which are either attenuated rabies vaccines or recombinant vaccines where different viruses express the rabies glycopro‐ tein [3]. Moreover, user-friendly diagnostic methods have been developed, e.g., a rapid immunochromatographic test kit and a simple enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [4,5]. Understanding the current trends in research and technology development related to rabies control may provide a useful reference regarding the technological needs encountered in the field of zoonoses.

© 2014 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Bibliometric analysis is considered to be an effective method for identifying research trends in infectious disease control. Quantitative surveys of research articles (hereafter referred to as article) based on bibliometric studies have been reported in the field of infectious diseases, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) [6], tuberculosis research in India and China [7], and various forms of infectious disease research in different regions of the world [8], Asia [9], and around the world [10]. In particular, we have surveyed Asian and worldwide research trends, while ensuring that we avoided underestimating the number of articles in non-English and regional journals, rather than simply surveying journals registered in the "Infectious Disease Category" of the Science Citation Index ExpandedTM [9,10].

**2. Trends in rabies research based on articles**

**2.1. Method of analysis**

January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2011.

directly linked to the outputs of the latest research.

**2.2. Leading countries based on the number of articles**

analyzed to identify the characteristics of articles related to rabies.

This showed that rabies research was a particular focus in Brazil.

**2.3. Annual changes in the number of articles**

not surveyed in this study.

We used a two-tiered approach to analyze research related to rabies control. First, we per‐ formed a quantitative analysis of all articles about rabies. Subsequently, we analyzed the top

Trends in Research and Technology Development Related to Zoonosis Control Based on Bibliometric and Patent…

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The Web of Science® [17] was used to survey articles about rabies, which covers over 12,000 journals worldwide, including open access journals. Using the Web of Science®, keyword and title search of articles was performed using the terms "Rabies" OR "Lyssa" (to include virus species related to rabies virus) NOT "Rabi" (to exclude articles in the field of optics, e.g., articles related to "Rabi oscillations") on June 24, 2013. The publication period of articles ranged from

We focused on articles and excluded reviews, proceedings papers, and other types of publi‐ cations. This is because articles are high quality because they have been peer reviewed and are

Other articles in the field of infectious diseases retrieved by the Web of Science® were also

The total number of articles related to rabies published throughout the world during 2001– 2011 was 2,565. We regrouped the articles by country to identify any possible differences in research output among countries. The US was the leading country, with the highest percentage of total articles, i.e., 32.5% of the total (833 articles). There was a big gap for the second placed country, France, with 10.6% of the total (273 articles). The UK, Brazil, and Germany followed with 10.1% (258 articles), 8.6% (220 articles), and 7.2% (185 articles), respectively (Figure 1).

As shown in Table 1, the US, France, the UK, and Germany were the top four countries with most articles related to rabies, and they were also the leading countries for all articles about infectious diseases. However, Brazil ranked in the top five with most articles related to rabies.

As shown in Figure 2, the total number of articles related to rabies increased during 2001–2011. However, the US did not show a remarkable change, although it produced the highest output. Other countries such as the UK, France, Brazil, and Germany also had stable outputs. Thus, the overall increase in articles was considered to be attributable to other countries that were

10 cited articles, irrespective of whether they were related to rabies control.

Patent analysis is also considered to be an effective method for technology development trend analysis. Patents are examined and granted by patent offices, and they are considered to be objective indicators of technology development activities. In addition, patents have significant advantages in terms of database availability, the variety of information included, and their systematic classification according to standardized schemes, e.g., the international patent classification (IPC) supports the detailed analysis of specific technological aspects. For these reasons, patent data are used intensively for strategic technology management by companies [11], as well as for science and technology (S&T) measurement in policy-making processes and academic research in various fields [12]. Indeed, patent analyses have been reported in the field of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis B vaccines [13] and influenza [14,15].

Research and technology development for rabies control is considered to be important for future public and animal health throughout the world, as described above. However, to the best of our knowledge, bibliometric and patent analyses of rabies have not been reported yet. Therefore, in this chapter, we report the current trends in research and technology develop‐ ment for rabies control in the US, the EU, and Asia based on analyses of articles and patent applications. We targeted patent applications because publication of a patent application is invariably the earliest point when relevant technology information becomes available to the public because it is the first set of detailed and up-to-date published information. Furthermore, the number of patent applications in particular technological areas is considered to indicate the volume of resources allocated [16].

The trends in research and technology development for rabies control will be summarized using the following indicators.


Based on this analysis, we discuss the future directions of research and technology develop‐ ment for rabies control. Moreover, we propose the development of a survey method for zoonosis control, research and technology development.
