Dog Ecology and Rabies Knowledge of Owners and Non-Owners in Sanur, A Sub-District of the Indonesian Island Province of Bali.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hiby E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6070915 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The Indonesian island province of Bali experienced its first rabies incursion in 2008. Mass vaccination of the dog population has proven effective and rabies cases in dogs and people have decreased, however the virus is still circulating among the dog population. Vaccination coverage must be maintained until rabies elimination. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of vaccination campaigns is therefore desired. Community engagement leading to preventative health actions by community members can reduce disease incidence and costs of control. Here we evaluate 2 years of a novel community-based dog welfare and rabies control project (Program Dharma) in the Sanur sub-district. The project engaged the services of people living in the project area with an interest or experience in dogs or community health services. These people spoke with owners within their own community about dog welfare and health, monitored owned and unowned dogs and increased owner and carer efforts to access vaccination and further veterinary services. The evaluation focused on a sample of dogs whose owners had been regularly engaged with project. Vaccination coverage was increased and there were no dog or human rabies cases reported in the project area; the percentage of the dogs that had never been vaccinated was reduced by an average 28.3% (baseline unvaccinated 41-49%, post-project unvaccinated 11-19%). The welfare of dogs improved from an average of 20.7% of dogs with visible welfare problems at baseline to 2.7% after project implementation. Roaming dog density observed on street surveys also decreased in all project areas (24-47% reduction dependent on desa). A participatory evaluation event with a sample of Program Dharma community-based agents highlighted several additional successes, including that the community appeared to welcome and value their services and were beginning to support the cost of project activities. Conversely, challenges included identifying dogs in the database during revisits, sustaining the costs of community member time spent working on Program Dharma activities and the costs of veterinary care, whilst avoiding dependency of owners on free veterinary services. The benefits revealed by the evaluation were judged to be sufficient to extend Program Dharma to new areas, whilst evolving activities to resolve challenges.
| S-EPMC6629783 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRabies has been a serious public health threat in Flores Island, Indonesia since it was introduced in 1997. To control the disease, annual dog vaccination campaigns have been implemented to vaccinate all dogs free of charge. Nevertheless, the uptake rate of the vaccination campaigns has been low. The objective of this paper is to identify risk factors associated with the uptake of rabies control measures by individual dog owners in Flores Island.Methodology/principal findingsA total of 450 dog owners from 44 randomly selected villages in the Sikka and Manggarai regencies were interviewed regarding their socio-demographic factors, knowledge of rabies, and their uptake of rabies control measures. The majority of dog owners surveyed (>90%) knew that rabies is a fatal disease and that it can be prevented. Moreover, 68% of the dog owners had a high level of knowledge about available rabies control measures. Fifty-two percent of the dog owners had had at least one of their dogs vaccinated during the 2012 vaccination campaign. Vaccination uptake was significantly higher for dog owners who resided in Sikka, kept female dogs for breeding, had an income of more than one million Rupiah, and had easy access to their village. The most important reasons not to join the vaccination campaign were lack of information about the vaccination campaign schedule (40%) and difficulty to catch the dog during the vaccination campaign (37%).Conclusions/significanceDog owners in Flores Island had a high level of knowledge of rabies and its control, but this was not associated with uptake of the 2012 vaccination campaign. Geographical accessibility was one of the important factors influencing the vaccination uptake among dog owners. Targeted distribution of information on vaccination schedules and methods to catch and restrain dogs in those villages with poor accessibility may increase vaccination uptake in the future.
| S-EPMC4363700 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Rabies is a deadly zoonotic disease responsible for almost 60,000 deaths each year, especially in Africa and Asia including Thailand. Dogs are the major reservoirs for rabies virus in these settings. This study thus used the concept of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) to identify socioeconomic factors that contribute to the differences in the canine rabies occurrences in high and low-risk areas which were classified by a Generalized Additive Model (GAM). Multistage sampling was then applied to designate the study locations and a KAP-based questionnaire was used to retrieve data and relevant perspectives from the respondents. Based on the responses from 476 participants living across four regions of Thailand, we found that the knowledge of the participants was positively correlated with their behaviors but negatively associated with the attitudes. Participants who are male, younger, educated at the level of middle to high school, or raising more dogs are likely to have negative attitudes but good knowledge on rabies prevention and control whereas farmers with lower income had better attitudes regardless of their knowledge. We found that people in a lower socioeconomic status with a lack of knowledge are not willing to pay at a higher vaccine price. Public education is a key to change dog owners' behaviors. Related authorities should constantly educate people on how to prevent and control rabies in their communities. Our findings should be applicable to other countries with similar socioeconomic statuses.
| S-EPMC8416909 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRabies is a zoonotic viral disease that can occur in all warm-blooded animals, including humans. Vaccinating dogs can protect people from contracting rabies. Rabies is a public health threat in Rwanda, but the country does not have information on the epidemiology of rabies. The present study aimed to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of rabies and its control among dog owners in Kigali city of Rwanda.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire among 137 dog owners selected from nine administrative study sites. A two-stage random sampling procedure was used to select the participants. Frequency distributions analysis and a series of chi-square tests of associations as well as binary logistic regressions were performed to determine the important factors associated with the response variables.ResultsThe results showed that 99.5% of respondents knew at least a host susceptible to rabies. Only 22.4% and 21.3% knew that dogs and people can develop rabies, respectively. Nearly 73.6% knew that human rabies can be transmitted through dog-bites and 99% could identify at least a clinical sign of canine rabies. Overall, 81.8% knew that regular vaccination of dogs helps to prevent dog-transmitted human rabies and 43.1% and 26.3% were aware that rabies in humans and in dogs are fatal once clinical symptoms have shown, respectively. Only 69% would observe a dog for 10 days after it bites a man or an animal. Approximately 20.4% were familiar with appropriate cleaning of dog-bites wounds, and 20.6% knew that puppies could receive rabies vaccination before they are three months old. Of those who owned vaccinated dogs, 78% were happy about the cost (US $ ≤ 34) of rabies vaccination. Of all the respondents, 58% had their dogs vaccinated at home by veterinarians while 86% indicated their veterinarians kept rabies vaccines on ice in a cool box. Overall, 53% of the dog owners had sufficient knowledge of rabies, whilst 66% and 17% adopted adequate practices and positive attitudes towards rabies, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that none of the respondents' sex, educational level, and the length of dog ownership were statistically associated with their knowledge, attitudes and practices of rabies.ConclusionsThis study showed that majority of the dog owners had sufficient knowledge and adopted appropriate practices of rabies. However there exist some knowledge gaps among the dog owners particularly on treatment, transmission and control methods. Therefore, rabies awareness campaign is required to upgrade rabies knowledge of the dog owners on rabies prevention and control in Rwanda.
| S-EPMC6701806 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Australia is underprepared for a rabies incursion due to a lack of information about how a rabies outbreak would spread within the susceptible canine populations and which control strategies would be best to control it. The aim of this study was to collect information to parameterize a recently developed dog rabies spread model as well as use this information to gauge how the community would accept potential control strategies. Such information-together with model outputs-would be used to inform decision makers on the best control strategies and improve Australia's preparedness against a canine rabies incursion. The parameters this study focussed on were detection time, vaccination rates and dog-culling and dog movement restriction compliance. A cross-sectional survey of 31 dog-owners, using a questionnaire, was undertaken in the five communities of the Northern Peninsular Area (NPA) in northern Australia regarding community dog movements, veterinary visits, reporting systems, perceptions of sick dogs and potential human behaviours during hypothetical rabies outbreaks. It highlighted the significant shortfalls in veterinary care that would need to be vastly improved during an outbreak, who educational programs should be targeted towards and which dog movements should be restricted. The results indicate that men were significantly more likely than women to allow their dogs to roam and to move their dogs. The current low vaccination rate of 12% highlighted the limited veterinary services that would need to be substantially increased to achieve effective rabies control. Participation in mass vaccination was accepted by 100% of the respondents. There was lower acceptance for other possible rabies control strategies with 10-20% of the respondents stating a resistance to both a mass culling program and a ban on dog movements. Consequently, movement bans and mass dog culling would have limited effectiveness as a control strategy in the NPA community. More than half of the respondents said that they would report their sick dogs within a week. This would lead to a much more optimistic rabies detection time than observed in other regions with recent dog rabies outbreaks. Findings from this study can be used to parameterize a recently developed dog rabies spread model as well as to develop informed policies for managing a future rabies incursion, thus improving Australia's preparedness against a canine rabies incursion.
| S-EPMC4846002 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although Indonesia has been rabies-infected since at least the 1880s, some islands remain rabies-free, such as Lombok. However, due to its adjacency to rabies-infected islands such as Bali and Flores, there is considerable risk of a rabies incursion. As part of a rabies risk assessment project, surveys were conducted to estimate the size of the dog population and to describe dog management practices of households belonging to different ethnic groups. A photographic-recapture method was employed and the number of unowned dogs was estimated. A total of 400 dog owning households were interviewed, 300 at an urban site and 100 at a rural site. The majority of the interviewed households belonged to the Balinese ethnic group. Owned dogs were more likely male, and non-pedigree or local breed. These households kept their dogs either fully restricted, semi-free roaming or free-roaming but full restriction was reported only at the urban site. Dog bite cases were reported to be higher at the urban site, and commonly affected children/young adults to 20 years old and males. A higher number of unowned dogs was observed at the urban site than at the rural site. Data generated within these surveys can inform rabies risk assessment models to quantify the probability of rabies being released into Lombok and resulting in the infection of the local dog population. The information gained is critical for efforts to educate dog owners about rabies, as a component of preparedness to prevent the establishment of rabies should an incursion occur.
| S-EPMC4416720 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The purpose of this study was to investigate the variables that contribute to obesity in pet dogs. The working hypothesis was that sports dog owners will better estimate their dog's body condition and report stronger belief and control over their dogs' feeding and exercise compared to traditional pet owners. We collected data on 171 pet owners (101 participated in canine sports) for this study. Each owner completed the Dog Owner Attitude Questionnaire. Each dog was measured for percent fat and Purina body condition scale. For the pet dogs, the median Purina body condition score was 6 (too heavy), but for the sports dogs it was 5 (ideal) (p < 0.05 different from pet dogs). The average percent fat for the pet dogs was 19.1 ± 8.6%, and for the sports dogs it was 13.8 ± 5.3% (p < 0.05 different from pet dogs). Among pet owners, 52% were able to correctly estimate their dog's body condition. Sports dog owners were 57% correct. Pet dog owners fed approximately 60% more per day compared to sports dog owners. Pet and sports dog owners exercised their dog via walking, but sports dog owners reported more activity with the dog, while pet dog owners reported more activity than the dog did by themselves. Overall, pet and sports dog owners put a high value on their dog's health and well-being, but better education with regard to body condition, feeding and exercise is critical to improve the pet obesity problem.
| S-EPMC8230856 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Rabies is a viral zoonosis that causes an estimated 59,000 preventable human fatalities every year. While more than 120 countries remain endemic for dog-mediated rabies, the burden is the highest in Africa and Asia where 99% of human rabies cases are caused by domestic dogs. One such rabies-endemic country is South Africa where an estimated 42 preventable human deaths occur every year. Although canine rabies had been well described for most of the provinces in South Africa, the epidemiology of rabies within the North West Province had not been well defined prior to this investigation. As such, the aim of this study was to use nucleotide sequence analyses to characterise the extant molecular epidemiology of rabies in the North West Province of South Africa-with specific focus on the interface between dogs and sylvatic species. To this end, Rabies lyssavirus isolates originating from the North West Province were subjected to molecular epidemiological analyses relying on the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methodology on two distinct gene regions, viz. the G-L intergenic region and partial nucleoprotein gene. Our results provided strong evidence in support of an endemic cycle of canine rabies in the East of the province, and three independent endemic cycles of sylvatic rabies spread throughout the province. Furthermore, evidence of specific events of virus spill-over between co-habiting sylvatic species and domestic dogs was found. These results suggest that the elimination of canine-mediated rabies from the province will rely not only on eliminating the disease from the dog populations, but also from the co-habiting sylvatic populations using oral rabies vaccination campaigns.
| S-EPMC9227852 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Rabies remains a disease of significant zoonotic and economic concern in rabies endemic areas of Bhutan. Rabies outbreaks in livestock threaten the livelihoods of subsistence farming communities and pose a potential public health threat. As a part of identifying approaches to prevent rabies in cattle, a Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) survey was conducted among cattle owners in selected rural areas of the southern rabies high-risk zone and low-risk zone in eastern Bhutan. Between March and April 2017, 562 cattle owners (281 in the east and 281 in the south) were interviewed using a questionnaire. Eighty-eight percent of the participants had heard of rabies but only 39% of the participants who had heard of rabies had adequate knowledge about rabies. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that residing in the south [OR = 9.25 (95% CI: 6.01-14.53)] and having seen a rabies case [OR = 2.46 (95% CI: 1.6-3.82)] were significantly associated with having adequate knowledge about rabies. Based on our scoring criteria, 65% of the total participants who had heard of rabies had a favorable attitude towards rabies control and prevention programs. The participants residing in the east were two times more likely to have a favourable attitude than their counterparts in the south [OR = 2.08 (95% CI: 1.43-3.05)]. More than 70% of the participants reported engaging in farm activities such as examining the oral cavity of sick cattle and assisting cattle during parturition. Only 25% of the participants reported using personal protective equipment while undertaking these activities. Despite a high level of rabies awareness, we observed that there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge about rabies regarding susceptible hosts, transmission routes, the health outcome of rabies infection in humans, and appropriate health-seeking behaviours. This study highlights the need to strengthen rabies education programs in rural communities to address the knowledge gaps that have been identified.
| S-EPMC6459539 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction: Pet ownership may provide an additional source of social support and may contribute to the owner's self-esteem. Self-esteem is considered a basic human need and is associated with psychological conditions such as depressive symptoms. To date, there is limited knowledge on the association between keeping a pet and self-esteem. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine whether cat owners, dog owners, and individuals without pets differ in terms of self-esteem (total sample and stratified by sex). Methods: Data were taken from the German Aging Survey (wave 5; nationally representative sample of individuals residing in private households ?40 years). In this survey, the widely used and well-established Rosenberg scale was used to quantify self-esteem. Socioeconomic, lifestyle, and health-related factors were adjusted for in the regression analysis (n = 5,485). Results: Multiple linear regressions showed that dog owners reported higher self-esteem scores compared to individuals without pets (? = 0.04, p < 0.05). Similarly, male dog owners reported higher self-esteem scores compared to men without pets (? = 0.07, p < 0.01). In contrast, female cat owners reported lower self-esteem scores compared to women without pets (? = -0.07, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Study findings showed a link between owning a cat and lower self-esteem (women), as well as between owning a dog and higher self-esteem (total sample; men). Future studies should concentrate on investigating the underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, longitudinal studies are needed to better understand the link between animal ownership and self-esteem.
| S-EPMC7492270 | biostudies-literature