The Badung regency culled 11 reportedly rabid dogs from the village of Ungasan in Uluwatu district, Bali on Thursday after two adults and two children in the area who were bitten died of undetermined causes.

Officials from the animal husbandry agency and representatives from the Yudisthira Swarga Foundation for wild dog welfare captured the animals, extracted cranial fluids for testing, then administered lethal injections to prevent a possible outbreak. The dogs were then buried.

Ungasan village chief and agency official, Wayan Suarkana, said most of the dogs culled were wild, though some belonged to villagers who were willing to hand over their pets.

He said it would take a few days to determine whether the culled dogs had rabies.

Suarkana said the agency might decide to cull more dogs in the village before waiting for lab results on the dogs' cranial fluids.

"It's hard to tell whether the disease is actually here or whether the dogs we culled today have rabies, but we just can't take the risk," he said.

This is the first case of mass culling of reportedly rabid canines. Bali has been rabies free for several decades, but the number of deaths forced the agency to act quickly, Suarkana said

In September this year dogs bit Made Artana, 32, and Ketut Wirata, 28. Two months later they both died, with officials believing the cause to be rabies. Artana died on Nov. 14 at Kasih Ibu Hospital in Badung; Wirata died on Nov. 23 at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.

Suarkana declined to identify the two toddlers, though their deaths were confirmed to have occurred "recently".

"They died of unknown causes, but they may have contracted rabies. They were bitten before they died," Suarkana said.

Sixteen other villagers have also been bitten, though none of them have complained of illness. Village records record 170 families living there.

Balinese tend to let wild dogs roam free and domesticated dogs are rarely kept on a leash.

In a separate interview, Tinneke Indrajaya from the Bali Animal Welfare Association said it would be a major concern if the dogs were infected with rabies because no vaccine for the disease is stored on the island.

"Bali has been free of rabies for decades, we haven't had any need for a vaccine in the island.

"But there's no need for panic, nothing's been confirmed yet," she said.

Rabies is a disease that causes acute inflammation in the brain. The disease can be carried by dogs, monkeys and bats, among other mammals.

A bite from an infected animal is fatal for humans if left untreated. However, immediate immunization is 100 percent effective in preventing the onset of the disease. There has been 31,000 deaths in Asia from rabies according to a 2006 report from the World Health Organization.

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