A dog ecology study in an urban and a semi-rural area of Zambia

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Date

Authors

De Balogh, K.K.I.M.
Wandeler, A.I. (Alexander I.)
Rabies in Southern and Eastern Africa. Workshop. (1993, Pretoria, South Africa)
Meslin, Francois-Xavier

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Published by the Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute

Abstract

Characteristics of dog populations and their accessibility for rabies vaccination were compared in an urban and a semi-rural area in Zambia. A total of 1190 households were interviewed. In the urban study area (Mutendere, a low income suburb of Lusaka) only 11 % of the households kept dogs with a dog:human ratio of 1:45. In the semi-rural area (Palabana) dogs were kept by 42% of households with a dog:human ratio of 1:6,7. In conjuction with the study of the dog populations in these two areas, immunization of dogs against rabies was provided by door-to-door visits in both study areas and also through central point vaccination in the urban area. The attitude of the public towards free rabies vaccinations was positive, although some misconceptions regarding indications and modalities of treatment following exposure to suspect dogs were found. Approximately 50% of the dog removals were as a result of disease and the demand for dogs was higher than the supply. Although only information on the owned segment of the dog population was obtained during the study, the proportion of ownerless dogs appeared to be very low. Generally, there is a need for better co-ordination between the different services involved in rabies control in Zambia to enhance the sustainability of vaccination programmes and improve the treatment of persons bitten by dogs.

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The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.

Keywords

Veterinary medicine, Rabies, Vaccinations, Rabies in southern and eastern Africa. Proceedings of a workshop held at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa, 3-5 May 1993

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Citation

De Balogh, KKIM, Wandeler, AI & Meslin, FX 1993, 'A dog ecology study in an urban and a semi-rural area of Zambia’, Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 437-443.