Preliminary Vaccination Campaign Report Nkoaranga & Nkoanekoli Ward 1st till 12 th July 2017 Project Method During last year s campaign it was obvious that the time allocated to vaccinate Nkoaranga and Nkoanekoli ward was not sufficient. We therefore extended this year campaign to two weeks, working with 3 teams. This allowed us to vaccinate at 12 static point locations over two weekends, as well as to cover the wards during the house-to-house vaccination/post vaccination survey. One additional station was set up on the 1 st July on request of the Livestock officer in Nkoaranga Ward. These locations were pre-advertised through announcements and sensitisation by local community leaders and Livestock Extension Officers and texts had been send to phone numbers recorded the year before. Sensitization meetings had been held with the village development committee of Nkoanekoli Ward and with village and sub-village leader of Nkoaranga Ward two weeks before the campaign. No school education program was held due to timing issues with school holidays and availability of the veterinary surgeon for the spay/neuter clinic. As we believe that creating a more stable dog population is essential to keep a higher vaccination coverage by reducing the number of puppies and therefore unvaccinated puppies, we gave the clinic priority and will return for the rabies awareness program to the schools at a later stage. The spay/neuter clinic was set up on Saturdays and Sundays at one of the static point stations while we used our temporary clinic in Ngongongare during the week. Dogs from the static points were brought there for surgery and returned during the week. The vaccination teams included a vaccinator, data collector, and card writer using local and international volunteers. Dogs were vaccinated using 1ml SC/IM Nobivac Rabies and owners were given a vaccine card, information leaflet about dog bite prevention and rabies prophylaxis, and a rabies hotline card. The demographic and owner details of each dog were data collected, along with the GPS location and date/time stamp, using the Mission Rabies App. Dogs were marked with a red or blue livestock marker to identify them in the house-to-house drive. Page 1 of 11
During the mobile house-to-house method we collected the number of previously vaccinated dogs (in order to establish the percentage of dogs in the community attending the vaccination clinics, as well as to achieve an enhanced population estimate, as a mark-resight survey) and vaccinated any unvaccinated dogs found. The GPS and date/timestamped demographic data for each dog was saved on the Mission Rabies App. Satellite mapping and a path-tracking function on the app were used by the mobile teams to assist with navigation and to assess the geographic coverage of each survey area. Picture 1 Vaccination and spay / neuter clinic at Nshupu Primary School Data Processing Due to some synchronizing issues between the handset and the server the below report is not final - once we are able to recover the data an updated version will be sent. Currently 123 entries are missing, 33 on the Static Point and 90 on the house-to-house. While the static point entries are calculated as new vaccinations we can t allocate the missing house-to-house entries to already vaccinated, vaccinated by others, new vaccination or not vaccinated. Though, even if all 90 entries would be counted as new vaccinated dogs the coverage would still be 78%. Page 2 of 11
Vaccination Coverage Achieved We estimated a dog population of 1,959 based on the population survey in November 2015 and a human:dog ratio of 1:8 in the previous campaigns. The human population is estimated to be 15,675 with an annual growth rate of 2.4% based on the Population and Housing Census of 2012. While the 2016 figures below are clearly indicating that the house to house survey that year was not sufficient to calculate an accurate dog population estimate the 2017 campaign proved to be a success by vaccinating more than 80% of the estimated dog population. 2016 overall coverage Total Dogs Vaccinated in Nkoaranga and Nkoanekoli Ward: 764 Estimated Dog Population based on the mark-resight Method: 1273 Coverage: 60% Total Nkoaranga and Nkoanekoli Ward 2017 Total Dogs Vaccinated in Nkoaranga and Nkoanekoli Ward: 1386 Estimated Dog Population based on the mark-re-sight Method: 1703 Coverage: 81% Vaccinations 2017 Date Already Vaccinated at Static Point Already Vaccinated by other New Vaccination Not Vaccinated Static Point Vaccination Grand Total Static Point Dates 1208 1208 01/07/17 379 02/07/17 318 08/07/17 379 09/07/17 132 House to House Dates 539 15 178 49 781 03/03/17 41 0 43 11 95 04/03/17 49 0 29 5 83 05/03/17 65 8 32 8 113 Page 3 of 11
06/03/17 49 4 11 12 76 09/07/17 0 0 1 1 10/07/17 154 0 21 2 177 11/07/17 99 0 12 5 116 12/07/17 82 3 29 6 120 Static Point Location Date 01/07/17 02/07/17 08/07/17 09/07/17 Grand Total Kwa Ngufu 138 138 Ngyani Chama 121 121 Ngyani PS 49 49 Nkoaranaga PS 71 71 Duka Nshupu 112 112 KLPT Nkoaranga 20 20 Nshupu PS 186 186 Sikuchi 87 87 Nkoanekoli PS 158 158 Pentacoste Nkure 134 134 Jua Kali 2 2 Store Sangananu 83 83 Ema Day Care / Nakoakiruwa 47 Grand Total 379 318 379 85 1208 While the static location Jua Kali (Nshupu Village Office) on the 9 th looks like a failed static point, vaccination surveys shows that dog owners walked on the first weekend to Nshupu Primary School. Nshupu Village office was chosen for the 2 nd weekend to catch dogs further than 750m away from the Primary School. The map on the right showing the close vicinity of those two stations, the circles are showing the 750 meter radius. Page 4 of 11
Project Area Map 2) Example of a survey area with path tracker Map 1) The vaccination area in the overall project area. Green areas had been covered during our January Campaign while King ori ward was a static point only vaccination campaign in November 2016. Grey areas are Meru wards without intervention by Mission Rabies / Mbwa Wa Africa Animal Rescue. Map 3) House to House survey blocks with static point locations Page 5 of 11
Proportion of Dog Population Attending Stationary Clinic vs Vaccinated on Door to Door Nearly 60% (1,208) of the total dogs vaccinated during the two week drive got vaccinated at the Stationary Clinics - this alone would have been sufficient to vaccinate 70% of the dog population. As Mission Rabies / Mbwa Wa Africa Animal Rescue is committed to vaccinate for 3 consecutive years in those wards these figures are an important part of a potential exit strategy where it is hoped that the Meru District Council will continue to maintain yearly static point vaccinations to keep the area rabies free. Based on this data required doses and a budget for 2019 could be prepared by the district veterinary office. 80.00% 60.00% % of Dogs vaccinated at Static Point vs. Door to Door Based on Total Dogs Vaccinated 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% 59.78% Static point 40.22% Door to door vaccination Improved Awareness This year s turnout at the static points highlights the importance of having village leaders sensitized and to make aware of rabies. Whilst in 2016 only livestock officers had been informed (village meetings had been conducted in 2015), this year s campaign was announced via a broader network which resulted in a significant drop of dog owners being unaware of the campaign. 2017 Reason for not coming to Stationary Clinic 2016 Reason for not coming to Stationary Clinic 60 40 20 0 3 11 15 16 17 27 41 48 150 100 50 0 2 2 15 15 21 26 31 117 Page 6 of 11
too_young harmful unavailable location_unknown distance other handling unaware other location_unknown distance unavailable unaware handling too_young & More sensitization is required to make people aware that dogs of all ages can and need to be vaccinated - in quite a few households the adult dogs had been brought to the static points while puppies had been left behind (handling (too many to carry) / too young) 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2 3 4 Reason for not coming to Stationary Clinic by dogs age 9 11 16 22 36 1 2 5 11 12 19 25 adult puppy Owner Demographics During the Stationary Clinics the age of the owner bringing the dog was recorded. Also this year the majority of owner had been over the age of 16. 800 Owners Age 711 600 400 374 200 0 108 under_10 11_15_years over_16 Picture 1) Owners bringing dogs to Duka Nshupu Page 7 of 11
The interest of owners in spaying their animals compared to the neuter status confirms last year s impression that it is mostly a financial hindrance and not a cultural one, though no details had been asked why owners don t want to sterilize their dogs. Free or low cost spay / neuter clinics would therefore be a possibility to control and reduce the overall dog population. The spay / neuter clinics had been well attended and a total of 161 dogs got sterilized. Neuter Status Interested in Sterilization 7.80% entire 32.29% no 92.20% neutered 67.71% yes Surgeries Total 86 84 82 80 78 84 76 74 77 Female Male Picture 2) The field clinic at Ema Day Care, Nkoakirua Picture 3) Surgery at the clinic in Ngongongare Page 8 of 11
Dog Demographics As seen in the past, the majority of dogs have been male, 69 females have been either pregnant or lactating. We hope that by 2018 the amount of puppies will be less due to the sterilized females. 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Sex and Age Distribution 11% 10% puppy 49% adult >3 month 30% female male 11.06% Pregnant / Lactating Status 5.64% 83.30% female not preg / lact female lactating female pregnant The majority of the village dogs are healthy which also reflects in the BCS, though hardly any dog receives worming, flea or tick treatment and many are full of parasites Body Condition Score 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 82.31% 14.32% 2.85% 0.52% emaciated underweight ideal overweight Two dogs with tumors have been treated on the last day in the clinic. Page 9 of 11
Acknowledgement We would like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Livestock, the Meru District Council, the local government authorities of Nkoaranga and Nkoanekoli and Mission Rabies for their ongoing support to eliminate rabies in Meru District. An Steensels, Katrien Vermeulen and especially Dr. Carla Esmat, owner of the Belgium Veterinary Clinic Dierenartsenpraktijk Het Spoor for their fundraising and donations to run a concurrent spay / neuter clinic. Ukweli Safaris for catering and providing a vehicle to distribute the field teams and to transport dogs to and from our clinic and the Dutch foundation Stichting Opstap for repairing our car to have reliable transport again. A big thank you as well to our committed Tanzanian and International Volunteers, walking up to 17 km a day during the house to house vaccination. Page 10 of 11
Impressions Picture 4) One of the vaccination teams, vaccinator, card writer and data collection Picture 3) boy bringing his puppy for vaccination Picture 5) Busy morning at Nkoanekoli Primary School Picture 6) Getting ready for the house to house survey Picture 7) Dog with mammal gland tumour Picture 8) Dog with mange, rachitis,, hernia, Picture 9) Self-made harness Page 11 of 11