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ILOILO City – Rabies eradication starts at home. The Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6 challenges pet owners to be responsible with their animals.
“We should give our pets appropriate food, water, shelter, healthcare and companionship,” said Dr. Pacifico Lumauag III, DA’s regional rabies focal person.
A pet owner must be “emotionally and financially prepared” to fully assume the responsibilities that come with owning a pet, stressed Lumauag.
Irresponsibility could lead to the spread of rabies, he warned.
DA’s Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RADDL) already recorded 23 positive cases of rabies in the region as of the third quarter of 2016. Lumauag said the figure is higher by four cases than the 19 diagnosed positive cases last year.
Iloilo recorded the highest incidence of rabies cases with 15, followed by Capiz with five, Aklan with two and Antique with one.
“Having a pet is a lifetime commitment,” said Lumauag.
Rabies is a human infection that occurs after a transdermal bite or scratch by an infected animal like dogs and cats. It can be transmitted when infectious material, usually saliva, comes into direct contact with a victim’s fresh skin lesions.
Rabies is responsible for the death of 200 to 300 Filipinos every year.
Lumawag encouraged the public to register their dogs to their local government units (LGUs) and have them vaccinated.
“The dog population statistics serve as a basis for the allocation of the rabies vaccines given to LGUs under the National Rabies Prevention and Control Program,” said Lumauag.
Latest data showed 558,000 dogs in the region and as of the third quarter of 2016. Around 40 percent of them were only immunized or vaccinated.
Lumauag said pet owners could ask their municipal or city veterinarians about the vaccination schedule in their areas for the free vaccination for their pets.
He also said owners have the responsibility to bring the specimen of their pets to the RADDL once the animals die after biting a person.
DA has waived the fee of P200 for the laboratory test for rabies diagnostics until Dec. 31, 2016, he said.
DA has intensified its campaign for a rabies-free Philippines. It centers on at least two action plans – vaccination of all dogs and cats to eliminate human rabies source; and stricter implementation of local ordinances specifically in the control of stray or free-roaming animals. (James Earl Ogatis, DA-6/PN)
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