BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set a target to create herd immunity among the city’s stray dog population against rabies by 2028.
BMC officials said the ongoing dog vaccination drive, taken up in the city in collaboration with Mission Rabies, the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry under OUAT and ASRA in March covered all 67 municipal wards within 73 days.
Of the total estimated stray dog population of 47,126 in the city, around 35,395 have been vaccinated, achieving 75 per cent coverage based on the stray dog census. Post-vaccination surveys conducted through the World Veterinary Service (WVS) mobile application recorded an aggregate vaccination coverage of approximately 72 per cent.
Teams used humane dog-catching techniques, including hand-catching for friendly dogs and net-catching for difficult-to-handle ones.
Vaccinated dogs were administered injectable inactivated cell-culture anti-rabies vaccine, marked with non-toxic biomarkers and released at the same location. Real-time monitoring and data collection were carried out through the WVS mobile application, while vaccination coverage was assessed against ward-wise stray dog census figures and independently verified through post-vaccination surveys.
As part of the next phase, BMC will undertake sero-surveillance by collecting blood samples from vaccinated dogs to evaluate antibody titer levels. The samples will be tested at the Rabies Diagnostic Laboratory of the Veterinary College in Bengaluru.
BMC nodal officer for the anti-rabies vaccination project, Dr Prasanta Kumar Sika informed that the vaccination drive would be conducted for three consecutive years till 2028 to build herd immunity among the city’s dog population and break the chain of rabies transmission from dogs to humans.
“The programme has demonstrated that large-scale, scientifically planned vaccination campaigns can achieve the critical coverage required for rabies control. Continued investment in vaccination, surveillance, public awareness and Animal Birth Control programmes will be crucial to achieve the vision of a rabies-free Bhubaneswar by 2030,” he said.
BMC authorities said the programme will be taken up as sustained annual vaccination drive as part of the broader goal of making Bhubaneswar a rabies-free city by 2030.