UK Vets Support 5th World Rabies Day
Yesterday marked the 5th World Rabies Day, during which awareness is raised by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control in order to spread the word about preventing rabies.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) pledged its support of the annual campaign, and urged UK veterinary surgeons to raise their staff and clients' awareness of the implications of rabies when they travel abroad.
Rabies remains one of the most deadly viral zoonoses presently encountered worldwide. Despite being completely preventable, it is thought to kill approximately one person every ten minutes across the globe.
Although it has become more or less a forgotten disease in Western Europe, many UK vets are playing a part in helping to eliminate canine rabies. As well as those working overseas tackling the disease on a daily basis, there are vets and virologists based in the UK who are making a considerable contribution towards alleviating the threat of rabies.
Carl Padgett, BVA President, praised the involvement of the UK's Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency. He said: "I am particularly proud that vets and researchers at the AHVLA are involved in this ongoing global fight against rabies."
He added: "In this World Veterinary Year when we witnessed the remarkable achievement of the eradication of rinderpest we are delighted to support World Rabies Day and hope that through our collective efforts we can make strides towards the elimination of another dread disease - rabies."
Since its inception in 2001, WRD is now recognised every year in over 130 countries. it has educated roughly 150 million people and vaccinated 4.6 million dogs worldwide.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
