On average, 4,000 dogs are vaccinated monthly against various diseases, mainly rabies, in Benguela province, by the Institute of Veterinary Services (ISV), ANGOP learned on Wednesday.
The information is from the head of the Institute of Veterinary Services in Benguela, Elisabete Conde, in an interview with ANGOP about the preparations for the National Animal Vaccination Campaign against rabies, which will soon start throughout the country.
Financed by the World Bank, the initiative is part of the Regional Project for the Improvement of Disease Surveillance Systems (REDISSE IV – Angola), which involves the ministries of Health, Agriculture and Forestry, and Environment.
However, the official praises the population’s adherence to veterinary medicine services, which, as she said, has allowed the immunization of canids and felines, and the control of rabies.
Even so, she sees the monthly average of vaccinated dogs as insufficient, arguing that the 2014 Census figures estimate the canine population in Benguel
a province at more than 150,000.
Often, she said, the institution promotes routine vaccination campaigns in the periphery, for a month, immunizing seven thousand dogs, as it was at the beginning of 2023.
‘We don’t have many reasons to complain, because people flock to the services,’ she said, concerned about citizens who find it difficult to take animals to vaccination, because they live in neighborhoods far from the city center.
Rabies disease situation
About the current situation of animal rabies in the province, she downplays the situation, as it is not that alarming, as two to three cases of suspected dogs are registered every six months.
But she warns that this does not mean that the services should cross their arms, because, as he made believe, two or three suspicious dogs or cats would be enough to decimate many lives.
With zero cases of suspected felines in the province, the interlocutor also draws attention to the existence of many stray dogs, which represents a danger to public health.
‘Gener
ally, when someone is bitten, the community kills the animal,’ she says, complaining that the case is beyond the institution’s control.
In fact, he stressed that, sometimes, the Institute of Veterinary Services only realizes that there are cases of human rabies transmitted by animals, thanks to the good interaction with the health services.
Source: Angola Press News Agency