KUCHING: Sarawak will step up efforts to vaccinate more dogs against rabies in urban and semi-urban areas towards eradicating the disease in the state by 2025, says Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi.
The state Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Minister said the number of vaccinated dogs in urban areas was still low compared to the immune belt area along the border.
To date, the immune belt enforcement team (IBET) has vaccinated 89% of dogs under its jurisdiction while mass vaccination programmes in urban and semi-urban areas have achieved a rate of about 60%.
"The question now is how we can be more effective in urban and suburban areas.
"We have to relook at our protocols and redeploy some IBET teams to help us move into the semi-urban areas.
"We also need the councils to help us," Dr Rundi told reporters after opening the Rabies in Borneo Conference here on Tuesday (Oct 31).
He said it was important for Sarawak to vaccinate 70% of the dog population in order to achieve its target of being rabies-free by 2025.
"We need to work together with agencies like councils, the Veterinary Services Department (DVS), NGOs and local communities.
"Sharing of information and data is also important to help us know which area is critical," he said.
State DVS director Datuk Dr Adrian Susin Ambud said they planned to conduct more mass vaccination campaigns statewide to reach 70% of the dog population and attain herd immunity against the disease.
"This is considered the only real way to stop the infectious cycle between animals and humans and will hopefully reduce human rabies deaths," he said.
Sarawak has recorded 65 deaths from 72 human rabies cases since the outbreak began in 2017.
Dr Adrian also said the department was working with the Sarawak Security and Enforcement Unit and state Public Health, Housing and Local Government Ministry to carry out surveillance, licensing, microchipping and population control of dogs as part of the "one health" approach for rabies control.
He said collaboration with the state Health Department on bite case management and the Sarawak Public Communications Unit for public awareness had resulted in better coordination of resources and logistics to combat rabies.
"Data management using a rabies app has been introduced by the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation for pet registration and traceability," he added.
