Other ways of curbing rabies

We’ve been talking non-stop about this, repeating it too many times with the hope that the humans who make decisions on this “life-and-death” matter (literally, that is, thousands of animals’ lives), will make a more humane, empathetic and better decision.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/09/27/Other-ways-of-curbing-rabies/

Some points:

So, what had authorities done in the past to have eradicated rabies from the country, and what could have happened in the last three years to bring it back?

Former DVS director-general Tan Sri Dr Mustaffa Babjee recalls how intensive work was carried out in a “immune belt” along the Malaysia-Thai border states of Perlis, Kedah, and Kelantan.

All the dogs in the immune belt were vaccinated against rabies every year, and stray dogs were not allowed into the area, which spreads out 10km in radius from the border.

“I don’t know if they continued doing this,” says Dr Mustaffa, adding stray dogs that wandered into the buffer zone from Thailand were immediately caught and euthanised.

Rabies is endemic in Thailand and used to be carried into Malaysia by stray dogs, he says.

He adds that all dogs that had been vaccinated against rabies were tagged with a collar to indicate their status.

And price of the anti-rabies jab had increased:

“We used to charge them RM5 per dog for the rabies vaccination but the price was increased to RM20 per animal about four years ago,” says the officer who declined to be named.

Most of the people living in and around the immune belt are not financially well-off and RM20 a dog is too costly for them, he points out, adding that many families, especially in the villages, keep dogs to take care of their fruit trees and vegetable plots. When the price was increased to RM20 for each jab, they would vaccinate only some of their dogs, not all.

The concept of the “immune belt” is the way to prevent any disease from entering a particular area and the immune belt is populated by healthy vaccinated stray dogs.  And this comes back to what we’ve been hearing from the experts – that 70% of the stray dog population has to be vaccinated to form the barrier and this creates herd immunity.

Any state that might be worried about the rabies spread can now create their own “immune belt” and it is NOT about killing. It is all about creating a healthy vaccinated stray dog population. This is our best protection.

Please read this too, especially the parts in bold:

A susceptible area is an area which has no immunity against the disease, with the dogs there not vaccinated against rabies, says former DVS head of disease control Datuk Dr P. Loganathan.

According to Dr Loganathan, ideally, 70% of dogs around susceptible areas must be vaccinated.

Dr Loganathan also questions if the current confirmation of the infection in the northern states followed World Health Organisation (WHO) specifications.

“It is not known if the infection has been confirmed according to this – Malaysia certainly has the capability to carry out these tests according to WHO standards,” he says.

He adds it is also not known if the samples taken from the infected dogs have been sent to the DVS research centre for final confirmation.

Dr Loganathan says that ideally, once properly confirmed that it is indeed rabies, a census of the dog population in the area must be carried out, followed by a vaccination campaign.

And over the last week, we kept hearing about a rabies “outbreak”, a state of “emergency”. All this to justify the culling of innocent stray dogs??

Was a census of the dog population carried out at all?

Was there even an outbreak?

Please remember that NONE of the humans who had dog-bites were tested positive for rabies. NONE at all.

Now, let’s listen to the vets:

Former Malaysian Small Animal Veterinary Association president Dr Clement Anthony says it is not practical for the affected states to go on a culling exercise to counter the rabies outbreak.

“Why cull dogs that are not infected? The authorities should work with rescuers and feeders to help identify street dogs and vaccinate them every year,” says Dr Clement.

The problem, he adds, is that there is no stray management machinery in place currently.

According to Dr Clement, only dogs that show symptoms must be destroyed, while rescuers and feeders must be given the responsibility of monitoring dogs that are not infected for symptoms.

“If not infected, why cull, as currently only 39 out of the 2,000 dogs culled tested positive, and this is only about 1.8 %,” Dr Clement points out.

Former Zoo Negara assistant director and resident veterinarian Assoc Prof Dr S. Vellayan concurs, adding that dogs suspected of rabies could be caught and locked-up to determine if they are indeed infected with rabies.

An infected dog will die within 10 days of the onset of rabies. If the dogs are not dead within those 10 days and do not show any symptoms, they can be vaccinated, quarantined (vaccinated dogs must be quarantined for two weeks) and released.

Dr Vellayan, who is currently with Universiti Teknologi Mara’s Faculty of Pharmacy, says the current method used by the authorities in the northern states has caused a lot of havoc and discontent.

He adds that local council pounds can be used to quarantine dogs suspected of rabies as well as street dogs that have been vaccinated against rabies.

“Rope in the rescuers and get them to help monitor the street dogs that have been quarantined,” he says.

Former DVS director-general Dr Mustaffa says the idea of “community dogs” could come in handy in countering the spread of rabies.

“If they (rescuers) can put these dogs on a leash, quarantine them and have visible tags and records for identification, it can work,” he says.

And this is exactly what animal welfare NGO’s have been pleading for.

Will the humans in power please consider adopting a fairer and more effective method now?

And please stop the killing.

Think “immune belt” and herd immunity through life-saving vaccination.