Rabies Vaccination of dogs in Goa
I’ve been out for a morning with the Mission Rabies vaccination team in the Indian province of Goa, which was a fascinating experience. I joined the team along with another vet, a vet nurse and three vet students. We left at 6.30am but it took us a while to get to the rendezvous with the team as it’s monsoon season and the main road was flooded.
We arrived to find the seven person-catching team already in position, with their distinctive truck. It consisted of four animal handlers with nets, an assistant carrying a paint kit and the rabies vaccinations in a cool box, a clerk recording details on a Smartphone App, and the team leader; writing vaccination certificates and giving out the rabies information hotline number. There was also a driver who (amazingly) managed to follow us with the truck as we walked the hilly streets, lanes, and tiny tracks of a small village near the main highway to find and vaccinate dogs against rabies.
The catchers in particular were amazingly sure-footed and quick off the mark. Due to the rainy season, any semi-smooth surface like tarmac or rock is covered by slippery algae making even walking treacherous. We wore walking boots or outdoor trainers but were still slipping and sliding all over the place. The catchers were in flip flops or sandals and were like mountain goats, leaping around and dashing at pace along paths and trails to catch dogs in their special nets.
The nets are about 75cm wide and a metre long and are wielded with great skill by the catchers. They throw them over the dogs or scoop them up and then somehow twist the net, meaning that the dogs are painlessly immobilised. Some dogs will whine a little when they are caught, but then they generally just lie still. The vaccination can be administered under the skin through a hole in the net. A paint-brush is used via another hole to dab an identifying colour mark onto the dog’s forehead. This helps to ensure that no dogs are missed, and none are accidentally vaccinated twice.
At about 9am we went for breakfast at a café and met up with the other team from the WVS Hicks Centre where I am volunteering. Our team had only inoculated seven dogs that morning, whilst the other team had been luckier and had found about fifteen unvaccinated dogs. Many of the dogs we met were already vaccinated, which proves that other parts of the scheme are working.
After a breakfast of samosas and dosas washed down by chai tea, we set off again. It rained several times during the morning, but the team worked through the showers without even putting on raincoats. Our team vaccinated a further twelve dogs in the second part of the morning, which made us feel that we’d helped a little bit. We headed home, happy to have been involved. However, I think we’ve got a long way to go; in 2018 Mission Rabies vaccinated 97,000 dogs in Goa!
The vaccination team goes out every morning and afternoon Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturday. Initially, when the project started, they found people were concealing their dogs or lying about owning one, because they were worried about what the team were doing. Rumours were flying about people going around injecting dogs to kill them.
Now an education team visits each area for a couple of weeks before the vaccination work starts. They publicise the Mission Rabies project; particularly targeting schools, because that is a good way to get the information out to families quickly. Rabid dogs tend to bite children more often than adults, so part of the education remit is to teach children about dogs and how to handle them safely. Over 500,000 children have been educated in this way. There are reports about children who have insisted that their parents phone the Mission Rabies hotline to alert the team about a dog with signs of rabies.
Once the community has been told that, “the yellow army is coming,” teams in mustard-coloured polo shirts go door to door. They vaccinate and mark any dogs who have not had a vaccine in the last year. Owners are given a certificate to prove that the dog has been vaccinated and a card with a hotline number to call if they are worried that a dog might have rabies. Their details are entered on the Mission Rabies app, which keeps a record of the number of dogs vaccinated and GPS tags the location, so the control team know exactly which areas have been covered.
A team of two people on a motorbike travel also around the area, catching by hand any dogs who will approach them or can be tempted by food, to vaccinate any friendly dogs who live on the street.
In the subsequent days the catching team visit the area (like the one that we joined). They walk through an area, asking at each house if the dogs are vaccinated. If not, those dogs are vaccinated. They try to catch free roaming dogs which have not been marked, then vaccinate and mark them. Both the motorbike and catching team also record all their vaccinations on the app.
Once the teams have worked their way through an area a survey team is sent out. They record how many dogs they see and how many of those have been marked. In order to eradicate rabies, the WHO (World Health Organisation) advises that 70% of the dog population should be vaccinated. If the percentage of unvaccinated dogs exceeds 30%, the Mission Rabies team returns to vaccinate more dogs. If they are happy with the coverage, the team moves on to the next area. However, they need to return annually to keep up the level of protection.
The teams also provide information about animal welfare and sterilisation, to prevent unwanted puppies. Sometimes they find animals who require veterinary attention and take them to associated veterinary clinics.
India is the one of the countries with the highest incidence of human rabies cases in the world and was targeted as a key site in the fight to eradicate rabies. One third of all human rabies deaths occur in India.
Goa is the smallest state in India and was one of the first to attempt to eradicate rabies. The campaign has been highly successful, with only one human case of rabies each in 2016 and 2017 and no cases at all in 2018. As rabies is often a fatal disease, Goa was the only Indian province which did not have a human death from rabies in 2018! The next milestone will be to have no animal cases; with 2025 as the target date set by the WHO.
This is an amazing feat and Mission Rabies deserve a huge amount of congratulations and support for the great work that they are doing. This work would not be possible without the help of MSD, the drug company who manufacture the rabies vaccine and supply it to this project free of charge.
Mission Rabies also provide a supported hotline so members of the public can report animals which they fear might have rabies. There is a an integrated program with human health agencies to ensure that all cases of animal bites are reported and receive follow up telephone calls and advice.
If this has inspired you and you would like to donate to Mission Rabies, to allow them to continue their great work, you can do so here. £15 vaccinates and protects 10 dogs against rabies for a whole year.
You can find out more about Mission Rabies projects in India here. There are India Times newspaper articles about rabies in Goa here and here.
I travelled to India as a volunteer with WVS, the sister charity of Mission Rabies. You can find more details about the project I was involved in on the WVS website.
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