Ongole: Pet owners advised to vaccinate dogs for rabies
A pet dog receiving a shot of vaccine at veterinary polyclinic in Ongole on Tuesday
Ongole: The Animal Husbandry department in Prakasam district observed the World Zoonoses Day on Tuesday by vaccinating the pet dogs and other animals. They created awareness on the zoonotic diseases and precautions to be taken from spreading them from animals to human beings.
The Animal Husbandry department Joint Director Dr K Baby Rani initiated the mega vaccination programme for the dogs as part of observing the World Zoonoses Day.
As the Covid-19 pandemic is continuing to take lives and cause economic loss across the world, the governments should take measures to prevent zoonotic diseases from contracting the human population.
Dr Baby Rani explained that Zoonosis is an infectious disease caused by a pathogen that originated in animals but jumped to humans directly or through an intermediary species. Rabies, leptospirosis, brucellosis, anthrax, bird flu, tuberculosis, Japanese encephalitis and other zoonotic diseases are most commonly observed in human beings, she said.
She informed that World Zoonoses Day is being celebrated to commemorate the efforts of Louis Pasteur, who successfully administered the first vaccine against rabies on a 6-year-old boy Joseph, on July 6, 1885.
The JDAH said that all pets should be vaccinated to prevent them from spreading diseases and eventually cause death to human beings. She said that rabies vaccine should be administered on each dog after they attain 3 months of age, leptospirosis vaccine after 45 days of age and continue one booster dose for every year.
She advised the people not to run if dogs are barking, don't try to drag away their food, not to stare into the dog's eyes for long, don't try to beat or harm the puppies to avoid themselves from the dog bites. She asked people to stand still by looking down for some time if the dogs are surrounding them barking to let them ease and go away.
The JDAH Dr Baby Rani informed that they have stock of rabies vaccine in all 27 regional animal hospitals in the district and veterinary polyclinic in Ongole. She announced that they are continuing the mega free vaccination programme for pet animals up to July 31, from 9 am to 4 pm and advised the owners to see their pets vaccinated and stop spreading rabies.