Kerala has registered a drastic increase in the incidence of rabies in cattle during the year 2014-15, prompting the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to propose a strategic vaccination programme for rabies control in the State.
According to the annual report of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance, rabies is highly endemic in Kerala, with a drastic increase in incidence among large ruminants (66 per cent). Rabies incidence and death of cattle was higher than anthrax, haemorrhagic septicaemia or black quarter in the State.
The report, released at the annual review meeting of the project here, notes that rabies was newly reported from Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode, and Kasaragod districts. According to Gaya Prasad, Assistant Director General, ICAR, vaccination and sterilisation of animals to control rabies had economic and strategic limitations. “While the animal birth control programme for sterilisation of stray dogs is too enormous a task to be taken up, the vaccination programme is not economically feasible.”
Dr. Prasad proposes a ring vaccination programme targeting the regions and persons more prone to rabies. “Since rabies has wild reservoirs like mongoose, the campaign should focus on areas bordering forests where wildlife comes into contact with livestock. People like veterinary doctors and animal handlers should also be vaccinated.”
Rabies, he said, was a blot on India’s health profile. As much as 25 to 30 per cent of the human casualties due to rabies across the world were in India, he added.
