Rabies cases: ‘SSPCA not totally unprepared’

KUCHING: The Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) committee is not altogether unprepared when it comes to rabies, although it was stunned by the three cases emerging from Serian recently.

According to SSPCA president Datin Dona Drury-Wee, they held two preparedness talks and workshops on rabies in 2015 and last year, as Kalimantan is known to have rabies cases and the long borders are porous.

“Through our dialogues and meetings with the authorities and ministers over the last three days, SSPCA is hopeful that we could show Malaysia how to deal with this outbreak in a humane manner, whilst protecting human lives as well,” she said, adding that as parents, the committee members are terribly saddened that about the three young children who were infected by the virus.

When they first learned about it, they decided to stay calm and not spread the news until there was confirmation from the official channels, as the last thing they wanted was public panic and the councils calling for a cull. Not surprisingly, certain quarters were calling for a cull, noted Wee.

“Fortunately with the relationships SSPCA has established over the past eight years with the state government and Department of Veterinary Serivces (DVS), as well as having talked about the vacuum effect a cull would cause, more of those involved in animal population management understand.”

A cull will cause the animals, especially dogs, to hide deeper and deeper in the jungle. In cities, dogs can walk for more than 10km in search of any easy food source. Culling will create vacuums for other dogs to fill.

“We don’t want to encourage this kind of migration of the dog populations at this time. Keep the dogs in their established territories to prevent this migration,” said Wee.

Mass vaccination is the standard response according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Mission Rabies, World Vet Services and many other international groups that deal with rabies cases on a daily basis.

“If you could vaccinate 70 per cent of the population, you would begin to create a ‘herd immunity’ and this will not allow the virus to perpetuate.”

Since news broke, SSPCA has been getting queries by pet owners about what they should do and whether there is a vaccine available. SSPCA has prepared a FAQ sheet addressing the cases in Serian, which can be accessed via https://tinyurl.com/sspcarabies.

Meanwhile, Wee said SSPCA would recommend that its staff and volunteers get vaccinated once there is enough preexposure vaccine available here.

“We are waiting for the Minister of Agriculture to override the ordinance and allow the vaccine to be available.”

On Sunday, Wee was among those who joined DVS personnel on a trip to Kampung Paon Rimu and Kampung Kriat for a dialogue with the villagers there.

A survey on pets found that there were not many free-roaming animals; thus dogcatching teams would not be necesary for this operation.

“Most (animals) are owned pets and their owners have been told to quarantine their own pets within their house compound and observe any changes in (the animals’) behaviour.”

On the news that some villagers in Serian had their dogs euthanized following changes in behaviour, Wee said it was unfortunate that they had to take matters into their own hands.

“They have been informed that if there are any other pets displaying symptoms of rabies, then they are to contact DVS immediately through their ‘ Ketua Kampung’ (village headmen).”

SSPCA also reminded the children that if any dog or cat bit or scratched them, they must inform their parents straight away so they could be taken to the nearest clinic for post- exposure vaccination.

“If anyone is bitten by what they suspect to be a rabid dog, then post-exposure vaccination is the only way to prevent the rabies virus from infecting them,” said Wee.