20 Jan 2020

The Ngamiland community has been alerted about the outbreak of rabies in the district.

In an interview over the weekend, principal veterinary officer, Dr Odireleng Thololwane. confirmed that they had recorded 13 cases of rabies from nine stray dogs and four goats.

Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals.

In most cases, the disease is transmitted by domestic dogs and it has been indicated that more than 99 per cent of human deaths are caused by dog-mediated rabies.

Dr Thololwane stated that most of the current cases were recorded in Maun, Chanoga, Kareng, Tsau, Semboyo and Gumare.

He advised members of the community to avoid contact with the affected animals and not to eat their meat.

He stated that the main concern was public health, adding that the disease had no cure.

In addition, he called on parents to monitor their children as statistics indicated that children below the age of 15 often played with dogs, which posed a health hazard to them.

According to the law, he said every animal that died of rabies should be burnt.

Dr Thololwane called on members of the community to report any suspicious signs in their livestock so that they could be assisted on time and to vaccinate their puppies at three months old.

He noted that rabies was 100 per cent preventable if there was adequate animal vaccination and control.

He said his department recently embarked on a vaccination campaign across the district and to date, about 400 dogs had been vaccinated.

He appreciated the positive response from the community, saying on the first day of the campaign, they managed to vaccinate over 250 animals.

“This is an indication that the community is taking the message seriously and is willing to prevent the diseases,” he stressed.

He decried the number of stray dogs, saying they were spreading the disease because of lack of care and urged the community not to keep a manageable number of dogs.

Dr Thololwane also urged the public to observe the behaviour of their livestock, saying most of the time, infected animals became aggressive and attack people and objects.

Some of the signs of infected animals were fear of water and light, unusual behaviour, increased saliva, paralysis at the back or tongue, while humans can experience headache, fever, irritability, pain and itching on the site of infection, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite among others.

Dr Thololwane said they had mobilised other stakeholders such as Bye Law unit and Animal Welfare Society to address the issue of stray animals.

Meanwhile, he stated that the last rabies outbreak detected in the district was in 2017/18 and the most affected animals were cattle, goats and donkeys. ENDS