Partnership with Enonkishu Conservancy and World Animal Protection to fight rabies.
In rural Africa, domestic dogs are important to the community as they help to guard livestock. With rabies endemic in Kenya and 2,000 people dying annually of the disease, dog vaccination drives are a key part of the country’s Strategic Plan to eliminate human rabies.
For the last four years, WSAVA member the Kenya Small and Companion Animal Veterinary Association (KESCAVA) has supported dog vaccination drives in the Northern Mara region in partnership with not for profit organization the Enonkishu Conservancy and WSAVA partner, World Animal Protection. The most recent campaign took place on 12 and 13 December 2019. More than 750 dogs were vaccinated.
Dr Derick Chibeu, WSAVA Member Representative for KESCAVA, explains:
As the popularity of our campaigns has grown, more dog and cat owners are willing to vaccinate their animals. In 2019, for the first time, many were also happy for us to spay and neuter their animals, a new development in this conservative community.
In addition to contributing to reducing human deaths from rabies, our work is supporting conservation. For instance, since our first vaccination drive, two packs of the endangered African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) have been more frequent visitors to Enonkishu. This is exciting news because we believe that the entire local wild dog population succumbed to rabies between 1989 and 1991.
Given the success of our vaccination drives, we look forward to continuing to work with Enonkishu Conservancy and World Animal Protection on these annual events. We also thank World Animal Protection for providing all of the drugs and consumables for this campaign which covered 192 square kilometres.”
Our members take great satisfaction from helping to reduce the incidence of rabies in an area where normal government services are almost non–existent. We know that the community appreciates our efforts and, of course, nothing beats a few days out in the true African wilderness!”
Dr Derick Chibeu