Assessment Report on Anti-Rabies Dogs Vaccination Performance in Four Sub-Cities of the Addis Ababa City Administration

Abstract

Rabies is a deadly zoonotic disease with world-wide occurrence, and is transmitted through bite. Many of the victims are children, more likely to play with or approach Free Roaming Dogs. Despite rabies has remained neglected by relevant veterinary, medical and public authorities. Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia. The number of free roaming canidae and apparently, loose management of dogs contributes to a high endemicity of canine rabies in the capital city. The anti-rabies mass vaccination was carried from November 2007 to January 2010  a total 1070 owned dogs in 4 major Sub-cities; covering; Gulele (70 %), Addis Ketema(12%), Arada(10%), and Kolfe-Keranio, (8%) within the Addis Ababa City Administration that encompasses 116 Woredas. During the same period were vaccinated, of which male dogs were 700 (65 %) and females 370 (35%) respectively. The age structure ranged from 1 month to19 years, of which 367 (34.3%) were less than 1 year( ≤1 year) ,623 dogs (58.2%) being between one to ten years (1-10 years) and the  remaining 80 dogs (7.5%) were above 10 years (≥10 years), with an average age structure of 4 years and 5 months. From the present vaccination data it was interesting to observe that the dominant colors among 1070 immunized canines were brown,(460) 43%), and black (265) 24.8%, while the remaining population being; white (110 ) 10.3%, grey (70) 6.3% , and other different colors (165)15.4% respectively. The reporter also noted that among the vaccinated canines about 80% revealed to be indigenous, while the remaining were mongrels or hybrids of unidentified breeds. This is an indication of absence of breeding policy. The vaccination was being carried out as a regular annual activity for possible minimization of the transmission of the fatal disease for the well-being of public health.

Keywords: Canine, Dog, Rabies, Vaccination

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-21-07

Publication date: November 30^th 2019