News Focus - BALI LAUNCHES FIFTH MASS VACCINATION PROGRAM AGAINST RABIES by Fardah

          Jakarta,  April 19 , 2014 (Antara) -  The fifth mass vaccination program against rabies , which is part of the government's effort to make Bali free from rabies, has been ongoing acrosss the island

since April 15, targeting 350 thousand stray dogs..  

    Bali has resolved to become rabies-free by the year 2015, in order to maintain its reputation as the world's most famous resort island. Nationally, the central government has targeted theentire country to be rabies-free by 2020.

          Over the past few years, Bali authorities have routinely carried ot mass vaccination programs against rabies, targeting strays, as well as domestic dogs.  

    Officially launched in Gunung Sari village, Seririt, Buleleng District, where several dog bite cases were reported recently, the fifth mass vaccination program is to continue until July 31.
         "We have deployed 90 staff members during the ongoing mass vaccination program,"  Putu Sumantra, the head of the Bali animal husbandry and health office, said recently.   
     A total of 120 thousand doses of vaccines have been distributed across nine districts in Bali, while 250 thousand more doses were scheduled to arrive soon.
          The system being applied during the vaccination campaign is different from the ones used in previous campaigns. This time, officers are targeting stray dogs wandering in hilly and mountainous areas, and puppies, which were not vaccinated before.
          Vaccinations will also be given to puppies as young as two weeks to protect and strengthen their immunity.
         "Cats and monkeys that we encounter will also be vaccinated, but they are not our targets, because our main targets are dogs," he reiterated. He called upon the cooperation of the local residents to help make the rabies-free Bali program a success.     
    In several villages in Buleleng, the vaccination program has began April 7.
         Since January 2014, 17 dogs have been found infected with rabies in seven districts in Bali, including six cases in Buleleng. This was a significant decrease, given that last year 44 dogs were infected with rabies, particularly in Buleleng, Jembrana and Bangli.
         The first fatal rabies case in Bali was found in 2008. Since then, the disease has claimed 146 lives.  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s Crisis Management Centre for Animal Health conducted a mission to Bali in December of 2008.
    Since 2011, FAO has been supporting Indonesia in working to rapidly control the deadly rabies virus on the island, through an innovative strategy centered on comprehensive mass vaccinations of dogs.
     "This was to be achieved by establishing an effective programme to coordinate and facilitate rabies control with government agencies and partner organizations," FAO said on its official website.
            As a result of the programme, human rabies cases were reduced from eleven per month in 2010 to just one per month the following year. Following a mass vaccination of dogs, there was another major reduction in 2012 and 2013, bringing the number of reported cases down to only one human case in all of 2013.   
    The previous four mass vaccination programs, which were organized in 2010, vaccinated 95 percent of targeted dogs.
         "The model developed in Bali is now being modified as appropriate and used in other affected parts of Indonesia to progressively control and eliminate the virus from the entire country," the FAO added.    
      In line with the Agriculture Ministry's Regulation No. 1696/2008, Bali has been labeled a mad dog disease quarantine area.  Animal smuggling violates the Bali Governor Regulation No. 88/2008 and the Law No. 16/1992.
         "According to the regulation, animals, such as dogs, cats, and monkeys, which could carry the rabies virus, are banned from entering Bali. The regulation is still effective and has not yet been revoked," he emphasized. 
    However, to create a rabies-free Bali is not without a price. Recently, 31 expensive dogs, from breeds such as Siberian Husky, Pomeranian, miniature Pomeranian, and Leci, were euthanized by officers of the Gilimanuk agricultural quarantine, Jembrana district.
         The dogs, worth hundreds of millions of rupiah, were smuggled from Java to Bali on April 11, and they were euthanized after no one claimed their ownership after 24 hours, Ida Bagus Eka Ludra of the Bali Agricultural Quarantine Office reported.
         He said that his officers had tried to be in touch with the names written on the dogs' cages, but they denied that they owned the dogs. "We euthanized the dogs because no one claimed to be the owners," Ludra stated.
         Two Persian cats and several birds, which were also smuggled onto the island the same day, were returned to Java, since the identity of their owners were known.
          He pointed out that the animals smuggled into Bali were not automatically euthanized. The authorities will wait 24 hours to obtain the necessary documents, before returning the animals to their places of origin or culling them if no one claimed ownership.
         "We do not want to take any risks, as Bali was once hit by rabies. So, we euthanized the dogs in accordance with the procedures," he remarked. ***3***
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(T.F001/A/BESSR/A/A. Abdussalam) 19-04-2014 16:59:52