Sarawak all out to conduct rabies eradication programmes

KUCHING, June 18 (Bernama) –The Department of Veterinary Services Sarawak (DVSS) will continue to conduct rabies eradication programmes to curb the outbreak of the disease in the state, which has recorded 19 rabies cases, including 18 fatal ones, so far.

Its director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud said the programmes included mass vaccination, awareness campaign, surveillance and monitoring of the rabies situation in Sarawak.

“To date, a total of 119,873 dogs were vaccinated against rabies since 2017,” he said in a statement here today.

As of the first week of June, he said, the State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (SVDL) has received 20 samples for rabies testing from Kuching and Serian divisions, with eight samples found to be positive.

He said all the positive cases were within a 10-km radius of rabies-infected area and most of the recent positive cases were never vaccinated against rabies.

Hence, he said, DVSS would like to urge the public to vaccinate all their dogs against rabies in order to protect their pet and family.

Under Section 40 of the Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999, it is an offence if owners do not vaccinate their dogs and failure to comply with any order or direction made or given under subsection (1) or (3) shall be guilty of a penalty, a fine not exceeding RM2,500.

He said door-to-door vaccination campaigns would be conducted during phase four of the rabies operation in Serian and Simunjan from June 20 to 25.

“For those who are unable to send their dog for vaccination during the operation, you can bring it to the nearest Divisional Veterinary Office during office hours,” he said.

-- BERNAMA