The Hindu : Anti-rabies scheme picking up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 17, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thrissur

Anti-rabies scheme picking up

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR, JAN. 16. An ambitious scheme jointly worked out by the district panchayat and the animal husbandry department in collaboration with the veterinary college to make the district rabies-free within three years is slowly picking up.

The scheme envisages controlling the stray dog population and administering vaccines to as many animals possible and at the first phase the effort was to sensitise the local body office-bearers and officials as well as the veterinarians attached to them on its objectives and broad methodology. The focus has now shifted to providing intense training to the veterinarians to help them update the knowledge on rabies and to volunteers who are prepared to act as dogcatchers on the latest humane methods of live catching of dogs.

The scheme launched about two months back had faced some procedural problems initially because of the confusions caused by the Planning Board directives on the allocation funds to it. Later, a judgment by the Kerala High Court staying the ban on the killing of stray dogs also created some confusion.

The High Court order had dampened the enthusiasm of the local bodies on implementing the scheme that focussed on the birth control of stray dogs, because they thought with the Court order they will be able to launch indiscriminate killing of stray dogs. But curiously, even after the Court order not many local bodies came forward to undertake programmes for killing the stray dogs. Also, now there is a growing realisation that killing of stray dogs will not be a lasting or humane solution for the spread of rabies because the same number of stray dog population will appear in the next years as well. Many of the local bodies are now recognising that the scheme for controlling the stray dog population through vasectomy and oophorectomy, and administering anti-rabies vaccine to dogs on a wide scale is a better route for containing rabies on a long-term.

It was in this context that the rabies-prevention scheme of the district panchayat and Animal Husbandry Department has received a renewed attention. The district panchayat secretary, Preman, told here that the panchayat has already earmarked Rs 7.5 lakh for the first year of the scheme, and money will not be a constraint for its implementation.

Under the scheme 40 veterinarians have already been given the rabies update training in which they are being provided with the latest knowledge on the diagnosis and management of rabid animals at the veterinary college, the district animal husbandry officer, K. G. Suma, said. The surgery department of the college is also giving them training on the advanced methods of vasectomy and oophorectomy which will demand only less days of post-operative care, unlike the conventional methods, Dr. Suma said. The Head of the Department of Preventive Medicine of the college, M. R. Sasindranath, said the under the scheme the veterinarians are being trained in fluorescent anti-body technique for the diagnosis of rabies among dogs instead of the conventional Negri-body test. The new test gives almost 100 per cent correct results within about two hours and can be used even in dogs, which are dead due to unnatural causes. The conventional method on the other hand has only 35 per cent accuracy, and can be used only among naturally dead dogs. In both the methods the samples for tests are taken from the brain of the dogs, though in the new method saliva and corneal impression smear can be used for tests with a lesser degree of accuracy.

Dr. Suma said 14 volunteers have already come for training to become dogcatchers and the scheme envisages selection of 34 volunteers altogether in the first year. Earlier the dogs were to be caught for killing so that even inhuman methods could have been used for catching. But now the effort is to catch the dog live for subjecting them to birth control surgeries and to administer anti-rabies vaccine on them. So the focus is on training the volunteers on humane methods of dog catching. Paul Robert who is the resource person for the training said only rope hooks attached with a small piece of GM pipe is used for catching the dogs so that they will not feel much pain.

The dogs, which have undergone surgeries and have been given the vaccines, will be released to their respective areas with an identification mark for locating them in for follow-up actions next year, Dr. Suma said.

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