Mycoplasma are a form of bacteria that are commonly found as contaminants in cell cultures. They adversely affect cell line growth rates and viral vaccine production. Mycoplasma contamination is a challenge for the vaccine industry and virology researchers. Current commercial reagents or kits only temporarily inhibit the growth of mycoplasma, but cannot eliminate the contaminants.

CDC has developed a method that can reliably eliminate mycoplasma from enveloped virus stock. This method allows for the removal of the mycoplasma without harming harvested virus. The harvested virus can then be transfected back into a clean cell line for continued virus production. Although designed for purification of rabies virus stocks, the method may successfully remove mycoplasma contamination from stocks of other enveloped viruses such as measles, mumps, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza virus. Additional in vitro testing is planned for other virus purification. Rabies strains treated using this method are available.