Rabies Control, Seeking Help From Mission Rabies
AnimalCare 
Sep 21, 2015 
AnimalCare, NGOs 
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We have written to Mission Rabies to seek advice and help. We urge you, even as an independent rescuer and caregiver, to do the same. With a bigger voice, maybe we can get the help needed for our street animals and many lives can be saved.
Please let’s speak up for the animals. It is extremely urgent.
Source: http://www.missionrabies.com/faq/ (please read all, especially the last question and the very last statement in this FAQ)
General Questions
Why aren’t you vaccinating elsewhere/will you come and vaccinate in my country?
We are always keen to hear from active animal welfare groups around the world who are interested in taking up the work of Mission Rabies in their own country. If you have the manpower and logistics to run a vaccine drive and are working in a rabies-endemic country, then we would be happy to hear from you to see whether Mission Rabies could support you in running mass vaccination drives. Contact enquiries@missionrabies.com for more information.
Do you sterilise dogs at the same time as vaccination?
This depends on the project, location and resources available. Humane population control is a very important part of an over arching strategy to control rabies, but it is a separate project to single-mindedly eliminating the disease.
If we aren’t neutering as we vaccinate, we always work synergistically with local NGO’s and through our sister charity, Worldwide Veterinary Service, to support on-going local veterinary infrastructure with ABC training and neutering campaigns.
As a priority to eliminate rabies, we need to rapidly achieve herd immunity in the dog population, by vaccinating to at least 70% coverage, as recommended by the World Health Organisation, so our immediate focus is often initially on mass vaccinations to hit this 70% coverage, and then we support the humane population control programme (which is a much slower process!).
Why are you vaccinating dogs and not people?
Over 99% of cases of human rabies are caused by an infected dog bite. Protecting dogs is the quickest and fastest way to protect people and tackles the disease at the source. The cost of vaccinating dogs is also significantly cheaper than the cost of vaccinating people too, so there is an economic benefit to preventing the disease in dogs as a primary initiative.
With regards public awareness, we always seek to deliver our comprehensive education material to local school children through our education teams. Dog vaccination together with educating people living alongside dogs is the best way to prevent rabies in both people and dogs. In our 6 month Goa initial project, we made over 70,000 school children rabies aware!
Do the nets traumatise or hurt the dogs?
It is the kindest and best way to catch a street dog. Some of the dogs are stressed by it, but never hurt and we use skilled dog catchers, trained in net catching which is non-painful and which most dogs don’t seem too distressed by.
To minimise the stress, we always aim to carry out the entire process of catch-vaccinate-mark-release within 60 seconds. We try to identify friendly dogs that will not require net catching and use treats and minimal restraint where possible, but it is fair to say, the safety of the vaccination team is our priority, so we do not take risks if we are uncertain of the temperament of the dog – in many cases it is safer for all concerned to restrain the dog quickly and painlessly in the net.
Do the yellow t-shirts frighten the dogs?
Dogs see a very limited range of colours and in much less intensity than humans do. Many dogs willingly approach the team for food rewards and are then held to be vaccinated. For those that don’t approach of their free will, the nets are the most humane and safest way to catch the dogs and the whole experience lasts usually less than a minute, yet the rabies vaccine administered will save their life and the lives of many people.
The uniform is most useful for other team members to identify their colleagues and for local communities to associate our colors with the work we are doing.
How will your teams keep track of those vaccinated for a hopeful repeat next year?
We don’t have to. The plan is always to repeat the 70% vaccination coverage of any given area, every year for three years.
We use Nobivac Rabies, a world-leading vaccine that also provides immunity for at least three years, however, in a rabies-endemic country like India, and where the dog population turnover may be high and we have no way of knowing which dogs have been vaccinated once the marker paint has worn off, annual vaccinations have to be enforced as much as possible to provide adequate protective ‘herd immunity’ in a population.
If we can maintain at least 70% vaccination coverage every year, then we can eliminate rabies from the dog population. There is no harm to the dogs by vaccinating them annually. Vaccinating annually also has the effect of raising awareness and diligence amongst animal owners about the importance of regular vaccination.
How many vaccinations are needed for immunity?
One single vaccine should provide immunity for at least three years.
At what age can dogs be vaccinated?
We vaccinate at any age.
We take our advice on age of vaccination from the Canine Rabies Blueprint:
“Although it is often assumed that pups should be vaccinated only after 3 months of age, it is important that dogs of all ages, including young pups, are vaccinated during a vaccination campaign. If pups are not included in campaigns, it is likely that the overall population vaccination coverage will not be high enough to prevent rabies in the interval between campaigns. There is good evidence from African campaigns that pups younger than 3 months mount a solid (protective) immune response to rabies vaccine and that commercial inactivated vaccines are entirely safe.” (Source: Canine Rabies Blueprint)
What about injured dogs?
Any injured or seriously ill animals are treated. That said, the project is focused on rabies control and it’s not possible for our mobile street teams to carry supplies of preventative meds, so we are not deworming, for example.
About the vaccine
The vaccine we use is Nobivac Rabies, produced by MSD (Merck) which is ideal for our campaign as it is very stable under field conditions (including exposure to higher temperatures). It is licensed and shown to be safe in pregnant and lactating bitches and pups from 4 weeks of age, provides at least 3 years’ immunity and has active case challenge data supporting its efficacy. It can also be given under the skin (subcutaneously) or directly into the muscle (intramuscularly). (MSD Vaccine Fact Sheet)
Do you just vaccinate free-roaming or un-owned dogs?
We will target both owned and un-owned dogs, since a large proportion of dog bites occur from owned dogs and to achieve the 70% vaccination coverage required to prevent the spread of rabies, we need to target all dogs, not just un-owned dogs. As well as catching free-roaming dogs in nets, we also go door-to-door vaccinating confined, owned dogs.
Wouldn’t it be easier/cheaper just to kill the dogs?
Killing dogs has been scientifically proven to have no effect on rabies transmission or overall population, since new dogs quickly move into the area where killing has taken place to take advantage of the increased food resources and territory. This mixing of new dogs may even increase the risk of rabies due to fighting over territory and mates. By vaccinating at least 70% of a stable population of dogs in the local area, they act as a barrier to disease transmission and stop rabies in its tracks, thus protecting the people in that area from the disease. A healthy, vaccinated street dog population is the best protection for people from rabies.
Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2015/09/21/rabies-control-seeking-he..
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