CHENNAI: Following the incident of a rabid dog attack in Chennai, corporation officials have ramped up measures to tackle the stray dog menace. Meanwhile, public health experts say the number of animal birth control procedures and anti-rabies vaccinations provided by the corporation are insufficient and also call for more proactive measures.
As per a 2018 census, there are around 58,000 stray dogs in Chennai. A comprehensive census in the city is overdue since 2022. A senior corporation official pegged the estimated number of stray dogs in the city to be around 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh. However, the civic body takes up an average of 20,000 anti-rabies vaccinations a year. At this rate, the corporation will take at least seven years to complete one cycle of vaccination for the entire population of stray dogs.
“Vaccine immunity, as far as rabies in concerned, lasts between one to three years depending on the type of vaccine. So, it is ideal that a dog be vaccinated at least every two years,” says Mathivanan L, former Deputy Director of Health Services.
“Dogs that are not aggressive can also be infected with rabies. Even by a conservative estimate, we are not even halfway near the target of vaccination. We are short of resources and manpower to achieve even the 50% target and our system is heavily burdened. Only if we maintain 70% target, the vaccination numbers will peak in five years and begin to decline,” he adds.
Since Tuesday, a total of 155 dogs have been captured by the corporation. Among these, 42 have to be sterilised. No case of rabies has been reported on any of the captured dogs, according to the corporation. WHO recommends that a minimum of 70% of dogs in a population should be immunised and sterilised to prevent outbreaks of rabies and control birth rate. As of November 21, the corporation has vaccinated 17,813 dogs.
Works are on to expedite the mass stray dog vaccination and census. Corporation is planning to conduct mass vaccination and comprehensive stray dog census simultaneously.J Kamal Hussain, veterinary officer with the corporation, says, “The mass vaccination programme will be done through an equipped third-party organisation. It will begin by January and done zone-wise in a targeted manner.”