(ID) Bali opts to cull dogs as it tackles rabies epidemic

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South China Morning Post

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INDONESIA

Associated Press in Denpasar

Nov 16, 2009

 

Working from a tiny mobile clinic, the veterinary team netted and held down

a dog plucked from the streets of Indonesia's most popular resort island and

then administered a quick injection.

The shot was a rabies vaccine, and the stray was among only a few dozen

lucky enough to receive the preventive treatment that could save its life.

Authorities on Bali have responded to a deadly epidemic with vaccinations

and widespread culling.

 

Despite protests from animal rights groups that argue vaccinations are the

only humane solution, more than 25,000 feral dogs have been culled with

poison in a year.

 

In the same period, rabies killed 18 people and spread to seven of Bali's

nine districts.

 

The latest Indonesian epidemic is part of a regional problem, with about

31,000 of 55,000 annual rabies deaths worldwide caused by dog bites in Asia,

according to the World Health Organisation.

 

Inoculations that cure humans already infected with rabies cost about US$49

- more than 100 times the price of a preventive dog vaccination that costs

about 30 cents.

 

Apparently unable to foot that cost, Bali has opted for the cheapest

response, which is culling.

 

But culling is ineffective because of the nature of wild animals, warned the

WHO, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the local

Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA).

 

Killing dogs immediately reduces the stray population, but leads to higher

birth rates because those remaining thrive on the extra food and water.

Their puppies survive in greater numbers than before.

 

" We believe culling fails to address the cause of the problem. That's why it

doesn't work, " said Sarah Vallentine, WSPA's programme manager for Companion

Animals in Asia. " It also alienates dog owners, the very people you want on

your side if you want to stop rabies. "

 

Most of Bali's estimated 300,000 to 450,000 dogs are strays and roam the

streets in search of scraps.

 

They are being poisoned with the relatively cheap drug strychnine, laced in

food or put on a blow dart.

 

Rabies has an almost 100 per cent cure rate when treated quickly with a

series of shots, but without the right care it is usually fatal. By the time

symptoms are discovered it is often too late, and the infected person will

die painfully within seven days.

 

Children are particularly vulnerable because they have closer contact with

dogs and are less likely to report a bite or get first aid.

 

Budget shortfalls, a lack of political support and insufficient personnel

were holding up a vaccination programme on Bali, said Rita Kusriatuti, a

leading Health Ministry official dealing with communicable animal diseases.

 

BAWA, run by Californian Janice Girardi, is struggling in the meantime to

fill that gap.

 

Established in 2006, the organisation has 34 employees who operate a mobile

clinic and plans to hire 10 more just to fight rabies.

 

An anti-rabies strategy was successfully applied in Chennai, an Indian city

of eight million, where 120 people died at the peak of an epidemic in 1996.

Rabies cases and dog bites dropped dramatically to no fatalities by 2005,

and not a single rabies death has been reported since January last year.

 

A first rabies death was recorded on Bali last November, but the epidemic

seems to have had little impact on a generally busy year for tourism - an

industry that contributes up to 80 per cent of Bali's economy and draws

millions of foreigners to Indonesia. Bali could be rabies-free within 12

months with a budget of US$1 million, Girardi said.

 

Bali officials have set a goal of eradicating rabies by 2012.

 

An outbreak began on the nearby Indonesian island of Flores in 1987 and at

least 113 human deaths were reported between 1998 and 2003. Roughly 500,000

dogs, or 70 per cent of the stray population, were clubbed to death.

 

Girardi's teams have worked with the Ministry of Animal Husbandry to

vaccinate dogs in select villages on Bali over the past year, with about

60,000 dogs having been helped.

 

In the village of Silakarang, Bali, 59 dogs were inoculated last month when

residents took their pets to the mobile vaccination station after being

summoned by the local chief.

 

Even as officials focus on culling, Girardi believes the Balinese people

would not kill dogs if they had another option.

 

" That option, of course, is to vaccinate the dogs, which we believe is the

only way to eliminate rabies. "