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Success for ambitious Mission Rabies challenge
mission rabies
New projects will be launched next year in Malawi, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia.

Luke Gamble reveals 20,000 dogs in Goa have been vaccinated and sterilised in six months

“Today we proved that we can achieve what others thought was impossible," said Luke Gamble, Mission Rabies CEO, as he announced that the UK-based charity has reached its ambitious target of vaccinating and sterilising more than 20,000 dogs in Goa in just six months.

"We showed the world that when we all work together, we can fight this disease – and beat it! Goa is just the beginning!"

Mr Gamble saw the devastating impact of rabies while he travelled the world as a vet. A third of all human cases of rabies are reported in India and a person dies from the disease every 30 minutes. As a result, hundreds of thousands of dogs are indiscriminately and inhumanely killed across the country every year.

Mr Gamble launched Mission Rabies in September 2013, with the initial aim of sending teams to 10 rabies hotspots in India to vaccinate 50,000 dogs in one month.

At the BSAVA Congress in April this year, Mr Gamble announced the charity's next ambitious project - to vaccinate and sterilise 70 per cent of Goa's dog population in six months. This is the percentage recommended by the World Health Organisation to prevent the spread of rabies from dog to dog or dog to person.

The Mission Rabies team set up more than 10 animal birth control clinics which carried out 700 to 800 surgeries every week. The 70 per cent vaccination rate will be maintained with mass vaccination programmes carried out in Goa in 2015 and 2016 . The ultimate aim is to eliminate rabies from the Indian state within three years.

All vaccinated and sterilised dogs are GPS tagged and post-vaccination surveys are carried out to ensure the target 70 per cent vaccination rate is achieved.

Since the launch of Mission Rabies, the team have vaccinated more than 100,000 dogs in India, performed more than 25,000 sterilisations and trained over 30 Indian veterinary surgeons in humane animal birth control methods.

In India, one child dies from rabies every hour. The majority of rabies cases are the result of dog bites in children from poor and marginal communities. Part of the aim of Mission Rabies, therefore, is to raise awareness of rabies and how to prevent dog bites. Education teams have visited schools across India to deliver a fun, easy to understand education programme, successfully making over 100,000 children "rabies aware".

During the initial programme, the team picked up an average of three to four rabid dogs each week, which were reported by members of the public via the "rabies hotline". This is the first time rabies prevalence has ever been recorded in India.

New projects will be launched next year in Malawi, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia.

 

Image courtesy of Mission Rabies.

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.