The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Dumping of dogs to blame for rabies: ABC India

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Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Dumping of dogs to blame for rabies: ABC India

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: ABC India, a voluntary organisation and trust working on rabies eradication and dog population management, has said that a closer look at the reports of rabies deaths in North Andhra Pradesh has suggested that the transmission of the killer virus was being facilitated due to ‘chronic dumping' or ‘translocation of dogs outside city limits by municipalities throughout the region.

Managing Director of ABC India, Lisa Warden in a press release said killing of dogs was not the solution. Non-implementation of dog sterilisation and canine anti-rabies vaccination programmes and mere dog displacement by municipalities was just an ill-fated attempt to respond to complaints from the pubic, she said.

She said dog displacement involved catching, transport and dumping of dogs either elsewhere in the city or outside city limits, in rural areas or forests and such dogs migrated to the nearest populated areas in search of food.

An examination of the geography of human rabies deaths and suspected rabid animal bites reported thus far revealed that the locations were further away from each other than was conceivable for dogs to travel in their normal daily migrations.

Dr. Warden recalled that expert studies on rabies had established that actions that cause instability in dog population encouraged an increase in transmission of the disease and that chronic dog displacement was one such action. It destabilised dog population because when they were removed from an area, more dogs would migrate into the vacated space.

Problem compounded

Because the canines were new to the area and unsettled, they often fought among themselves for domination, she said, adding that such fearful, unsettled dogs were much likely to bite local residents. The practice of removing and displacing dogs increased risk of dog bit to residents and spread of rabies too. Municipalities had to realise that by displacing dogs, they were only facilitating the spread of rabies virus and compounding the problem.

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