Many examples of national and international rabies databases exist (see here for examples) that may be shared and adapted to your specific database needs.

[en]Rabies Cases RBE - Friedrich Loeffler Institut[fr] Les cas de rage - Friedrich Loeffler Institut

Alternatively, programs such as Microsoft EXCEL or ACCESS can be used to develop a new database to meet your needs. The database should be able to be queried efficiently to provide a meaningful output profile or report for specific events. Some of the types of input/output data of value include: species, date and time of event, location (with the coordinates if available), sample condition, rabies status (based on a presumptive or confirmed diagnosis), vaccination status (in case of a domestic animal), rabies virus variant (if determined), occurrence and status of human exposure, age and gender of human exposed, prophylaxis administered, date PEP began, outcome of exposure event, as well as other pertinent information.

While all of these data may not be available in all instances, incomplete records often provide valuable information and therefore should be entered into the database.

Individual-level datasets have advantages over cumulative ones. Cumulative datasets might provide useful information, but are difficult to process for other purposes. In contrast, individual-level datasets provide more accuracy and can be easily intersected with other available datasets and hence, allow better descriptive epidemiological analysis, including mapping, and more sophisticated epidemiological approaches (e.g. predictive modeling of rabies and ORV interventions and cost-benefit analysis).