Ring vaccination drives check spread of rabies in the capital

Thiruvananthapuram: Successful ring vaccination campaign in various wards being conducted by Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) taskforce for dog population management and Compassion for Animal Welfare Association (CAWA) in association with the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation (TMC) as part of rabies free Thiruvananthapuram project have played a key role in keeping the rabid dogs from spreading the infection. Nearly 200 ring vaccination drives have been conducted by CAWA so far as part of the campaign.The team has caught six dogs suspected of having rabies from the corporation and the panchayat areas. The team initiates ring vaccination in an area, if a rabies case is suspected there and identifies it as a hotspot. “We take the animal and send it to an isolation center situated at Pettah. We raise awareness among pet owners about the importance of responsible pet ownership, including regular vaccinations and spaying/neutering, to promote animal health and well-being,” a person associated with the project said.“We do ring vaccination in hotspot areas which not only helps in providing herd immunity in the dogs of that area and also a sense of security in people. In some cases we also send our counsellors working under integrated bite control management (IBCM) for community outreach and making sure all dog bite victims get proper and complete shots to prevent the infection from taking hold,” he added.The project is being implemented in corporation limits with the assistance of National Dairy Development Board and its subsidiary Indian Immunologicals Ltd.So far over 6,000 dogs have been vaccinated in the city, corporation officials said. Geo-tagging of dogs has also covered 50 wards so far. This is aimed at creating an accurate database on the vaccination status and gender wise presence of stray dogs in different wards.The corporation official said that on an average 45-60 dogs per ward were being vaccinated and mapped on the database using a mobile app. “An accurate source of information regarding the density of animals is an important tool in stray dog management. We hope to have a foolproof database by the completion of this mission,” the official said.The team is working with the ward councillors to identify areas where stray dogs are found in packs in each ward. This will also help in vaccinating a good percentage of dogs across the wards. “With an increase in the number of dog bite cases, vaccinating the stray dogs is expected to provide the first line of defence against rabies,” officials said.