Judul: Determinants of Vaccination Coverage and Consequences for Rabies Control in Bali, Indonesia

Penulis: Arief RA¹, Jatikusumah A¹, Widyastuti MDW¹, Sunandar¹, Basri C^1,2, Putra AAG³, Willyanto I⁴, Estoepangestie S⁵, Mardiana I⁶, Gilbert J⁷ and Hampson K⁸ 

¹Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies, Indonesia, ²Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia, ³Disease Investigation Centre Denpasar, Indonesia, ⁴InI Veterinary Service, Indonesia, ⁵ Airlangga University, Indonesia,  ⁶Bali Provincial Livestock and Animal Health Office, Indonesia, ⁷International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya, ⁸University of Glasgow, United Kingdom; 

Summary/Abstract:

Achieving and maintaining high vaccination coverage is key to successful rabies control, but mass vaccination of dogs is difficult and over time population turnover erodes coverage. Successive island-wide vaccination campaigns have resulted in incidence declines, suggesting that elimination prospects are promising. We carried out household surveys of owned dogs (n=17,376) and transects for free-roaming dogs (37 transects, 1972 observations) in randomly selected villages in urban, suburban and rural settings to identify gaps in coverage and provide recommendations for future island-wide campaigns. Coverage was estimated to be approximately 10% higher in confined owned dogs in comparison to unconfined owned dogs, with more confinement (typically during the day only) in urban (92%) and suburban (83%) areas than in rural areas (28%). Estimates of coverage from household surveys were higher in adult owned dogs (91%) than in juveniles (<1yr, 44%) which could be due to pups born since the last vaccination campaign, however, differences of this magnitude suggests that pups may not have been targeted sufficiently during campaigns. Longitudinal fecundity studies also suggest that owners do not report pups, which may be an obstacle for vaccinators. In villages with recent culling in response to reports of rabies (4/27), levels of coverage were marginally lower (by 3%) and had a higher proportion of juveniles than in villages without any recent culling, suggesting replacement of culled dogs with unvaccinated pups. Coverage estimates from transects based on counts of collared dogs, were much lower (30.9%) than coverage reported by owners during household surveys (83.6%). This could be in part due to the loss of vaccination collars, but also because free-roaming dogs include unowned or difficult to vaccinate dogs. We recommend that for future campaigns on Bali to have the highest chance of eliminating rabies, concerted effort should be made to vaccinate free-roaming dogs particularly in rural areas, with prior advertising to ensure owners are aware of the need to vaccinate pups. Culling appears counterproductive to coverage to vaccination efforts, but research on birth control is merited as a potential means to maintain coverage by reducing births. Use of long-lasting collars would further help identify vaccinated animals and reassure communities that campaigns have been successful.

Citation: Arief AR, Jatikusumah A, Widyastuti MDW, Sunandar, Basri C, Putra AAG, Willyanto I, Estoepangestie S, Mardiana I, Gilbert J, and Hampson  K. 2012. Determinants of Vaccination Coverage and Consequences for Rabies Control in Bali, Indonesia. Poster Presented 13th ISVEE Conference. Maastricht The Netherlands 21-25 August 2012.