Cebu City eyes zero rabies cases by 2020

CEBU CITY – Cebu City aims to be rabies-free by 2020 as it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Humane Society International (HSI) for a city-wide free rabies vaccination campaign of dogs and cats.

City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) head Dr. Alice Utlang and HSI senior director Rahul Sehgal signed the MOU.

Utlang said her department and HSI will work together on a spaying and neutering campaign. HSI works on animal protection issues around the world.

The program also involves a house-to-house rabies vaccination in the city’s 80 barangays, Utlang said.

HSI has created an application that helps the program to gain information of the pet and its owner that could identify the gender of the cat or dog and track the location of the pet owner with a microchip.

This application is called the Mass Rabies Vaccination (MRV).

“We have been collaborating with DVMF and we are upgrading this technology.

Nothing like this exists anywhere else in the world and Cebu City is the benefactor of this technology,” Sehgal told Manila Bulletin.

Sehgal said he is proud to work with DVMF especially because it has the resources for rabies vaccination activities. The agency just needed some external support in terms of technology, planning and execution.

“I’m confident that if we continue this way, in 2020 will definitely be a city cure of rabies,” Sehgal said.

He urged all Cebuanos to take advantage of the services offered and to cooperate for the benefit of their pets as well as the safety of the owners from rabies.

“Don’t miss this opportunity, make use of this collaboration, participate, do come out or do allow us to vaccinate your do,” he added.

By next year the app could be upgraded to provide the specific location of the pet owner. Utlang said that if someone in a barangay has been bitten by a dog, the app can easily locate its owner.

“The owner could no longer deny,” she said.

HSI has been collaborating with DVMF since 2009. The organization has also given the city government a $50,000 grant for spaying and neutering.

Based on the DVMF and HSI survey, there are 130,000 dogs in the city. From February 26 to September 14 this year, more than 77,688 dogs have been vaccinated, Utlang said.

From August 25 to September 20, 411 pets were spayed, 294 dogs provided with microchips. (With reports from Bethel Cataquez and Ma. Lynde Arcilla/CIT-U Interns)