Mission Rabies Goa Monthly Report January 2019 By Julie Corfmat, Project Manager Vaccination Total number of dogs vaccinated in January 2019 = 10,250 What a great start to the new year! All the teams have been working together in Salcete taluka (South Goa) and have vaccinated over 10,000 dogs during January 2019. The map in Figure 1 highlights the vaccination coverage achieved in Salcete from December 2018 (grey) to the end of January 2019 (red). The hand catching teams continued to excel (Figure 2) and the net catching team s skills were really put to the test on the numerous beaches and waste disposal sites across Salcete (Figure 3). Salcete Vaccination Coverage December 2018 January 2019 Figure 1. Salcete Taluka Vaccination Coverage. December 2018 January 2019 1
Figure 2. Mission Rabies now has four hand catching teams working in the field 2
Figure 3. Some excellent catches from the net teams in difficult areas 3
Team Structure Dr Amulya (Figure 4) has re-joined Mission Rabies for her third WVS/MR rotation and Dr Sumanth (Figure 5) has been welcomed to the teams for the first time. Both have been excellent team leaders and have assisted with many rescue cases during the past month. Figure 4. Dr Amulya Figure 5. Dr Sumanth Rabies Surveillance, Testing and IBCM Total number of positive rabies cases in January 2019 = 0 Another great start to the new year! Zero rabies cases in January 2019. However, the surveillance team were kept busy as there were six suspected rabies cases all of which were confirmed negative upon post-mortem. Integrated Bite Case Management (IBCM) Officer Omkar has continued visiting hospitals and primary health care centres in North Goa to follow up on bite victims (Table 1) and the Mission Rabies Emergency Hotline received a total of 256 calls during January 2019 (Table 2). Most calls (144) concerned a request for vaccination followed by treatment requests (77) for a sick or injured dog. 4
Table 1. IBCM Monthly Report (1 st 31 st January 2019) Type of Case Mapusa District Hospital Aldona Hospital Siolim Primary Health Centre Valpoi Government Hospital Total Total cases followed up 142 30 67 22 261 People contacted 50 3 21 6 80 Stray dog bite 31 1 15 4 51 Owned dog bite 19 2 6 2 29 Phone investigation 50 3 21 6 80 In-person investigation 0 0 0 0 0 Full PEP advised 83 20 52 13 168 Could have stopped PEP 12 1 5 1 7 Table 2. Monthly Hotline Report (1 st 31 st January 2019) Nature of call Total 1 Vaccination request 144 2 Treatment request for sick or injured dog 77 3 Suspected rabid dog 4 4 Dog Nuisance/Menace 17 5 Adoption/rehoming request 1 6 Missing dog 5 7 Dog bitten by another dog 0 8 General dog related inquiry 7 9 Wrong number 1 10 Other 0 Total 256 Education Team The education team have had a busy start to the new year (Figure 6). Education officers Ashok, Akshay and Rakesh have been conducting program s in schools across Salcete, Ponda, Tiswadi and Bardez. They have also increased their target for 2019 which will see them reaching out to more schools than ever before! In addition to the education work, the officers assisted the vaccination teams by intimating panchayats. It is important that local authorities are kept up-to-date with the vaccination schedule and know when the teams will be visiting their areas. 5
Figure 6. In 2019, the education teams are visiting more schools to give life-saving lessons 6
Rescues and Releases Total number of rescue cases during January 2019 = 21 During January 2019, the teams responded to twenty-one animals in need. Out of the twenty-one cases, two were not found once the team reached the location and three had to be euthanised due to severe injuries/disease. The other sixteen cases included maggot wounds, eye and leg injuries (Figure 7). Three puppies were treated in the field as their maggot wounds were fairly small and team Elephants also managed to catch a dog which had been running around for eight days with a plastic container wedged firmly on its head preventing it from eating and drinking (Figure 8). Total number of animals released following treatment in January 2019 = 7 In addition to the rescues, the teams released seven dogs back to their original locations (Figure 9) following treatment at a local NGO South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals (SGWTA). The remaining cases are still undergoing treatment and will be released once they are fit and well. Donations received A total of 5000 Indian rupees (53.65 Pound sterling) was donated to Mission Rabies in January 2019. Helen from France kindly donated 4000/- to one of the teams and another 1000/- was given by Dave who was holidaying in Goa from the UK. Dave alerted the team to a dog which had been hit by a car and left at the side of the road. The dog was in a very bad condition and had a major spinal injury. The dog had suffered all night and was in a great deal of pain. Unfortunately, there was nothing the team could do other than humanely euthanise the dog and prevent him from suffering further. In 2018, the Rotary International generously donated three vehicles and two scooters to Mission Rabies Goa. Without these vehicles it would not be possible to rescue so many animals. The vehicles have not only made it possible for the teams to vaccinate more dogs and cover the whole of Goa but have also enabled them to save the lives of so many sick and injured animals across the state. Other News As the teams often struggle to run and catch dogs on the vast Goan beaches they enlisted the help of Monsoon SOS to vaccinate dogs on Sernabatim and Benaulim beach. Monsoon SOS are a small voluntary organisation that run a beach feeding program for stray dogs once the tourist season is over. They feed the dogs to make them friendly and to date have taken over 300 dogs for sterilisation. By working together 83 beach dogs were successfully vaccinated against rabies (Figure 10). Thank you to Jane, Gary and Sandra from Monsoon SOS! 7
Figure 7. A total of 21 animals were rescued in January 2019 8
Figure 8. Team Elephants to the rescue! 9
Figure 9. Dogs released back to their original locations following treatment at SGWTA Thank you to South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals for taking in all our rescue cases this month and to the Rotary for donating the vehicles which make all of this possible! 10
Figure 10. Monsoon SOS and Mission Rabies working together to vaccinate the beach dogs 11
Rajesh Rai Team Manager and Frank Fernandes Head Team Leader spent the day with our sister charity at the WVS Hicks ITC where they underwent an examination for Animal Birth Control Surgery Protocols Best Recommended Practice for Veterinary Assistants. They both successfully passed the exam and were awarded their certificates (Figure 11). Figure 11. Congratulations to Rajesh and Frank for completing the veterinary assistant course at WVS Hicks ITC Mission Rabies welcomed the first two batches of 2019 WVS participants for a morning session of vaccination. The participants helped with administering vaccinations, data collecting, writing vaccination cards and handing out emergency hotline cards to members (Figure 12) 12
Figure 12. WVS participants in the field with the Mission Rabies teams 13
In January 2019, Dr Vilas Naik Assistant Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services and Nodal Officer for Mission Rabies was invited to the Mission Rabies office for an interview with the Indian Express one of India s national newspapers (Figure 13). Dr Murugan, Dr Gowri, Julie and Praveen were also present for the interview and an article titled; was published on Monday 28 th January 2019. Although there were some errors in the article, it was a great opportunity to have the work of Mission Rabies highlighted in a national paper. Figure 13. Dr Vilas Naik visited the Mission Rabies office for an interview with the Indian Express 14
This month, our animal handlers demonstrated some great catching skills and excellent human-dog interactions dogs usually run away at the sight and smell of the nets however, this is not always the case as shown in Figure 14. In addition, there were lots of double catches! (Figure 15). Figure 14. Not all dogs run away from the nets! 15
Figure 15. Lots of doubles this month! 16
Mission Rabies Goa Project Full Vaccination Summary Year Vaccination Total 2013 5,767 2014 24,306 2015 56,681 2016 51,294 2017 96,033 2018 97,043 2019 to date 10,250 Thank you to all our supporters! 17