T

he Denpasar administration has kicked off this year's first mass rabies vaccination drive using a more effective vaccine it claims will provide longer protection for the city's canine population.

The vaccination drive is scheduled to run for a month, with the goal of immunizing around 40,000 dogs in the municipality.

The head of the city's husbandry agency, Dewa Made Ngurah, said the vaccination program would be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays for four consecutive weeks in the city's four districts, starting with West Denpasar district.

On Jan. 30 and 31, the mass vaccination is scheduled to take place in North Denpasar, followed by East Denpasar on Feb. 6 and 7 and ending at South Denpasar on Feb. 13 and 14. The program will be carried out in 411 banjar (customary village) in 43 subdistricts throughout the city.

"We began the vaccination program today using a new vaccine with a longer protection period compared to the previous one. We are targeting both dogs that have already been vaccinated before and those that have not," Ngurah said Saturday at the vaccination drive in Banjar Titih.

The new vaccine provides protection for one year, while the previous one only provided immunity for three months, he said.

"Dogs that are given the new vaccine will only need booster doses after one year. We have prepared 40,000 doses for this immunization drive."

He said the new vaccine would give dog owners peace of mind since they would only need to have their dogs vaccinated once a year. He blamed the low number of dogs receiving booster vaccines every three months on the lack of information about the importance of enhancing dogs' immunity given to dog owners.

"*Dog owners* believe a one-time shot is enough and are not worried as their dogs show no symptoms of rabies. Or maybe they are too busy to take their dogs to be vaccinated. In fact, the dogs' immunity to the rabies virus decreases after three months," he said.

The agency reported that since the first case of rabies emerged in Bali in November 2008, 38,700 dogs in the city had received anti-rabies shots and 2,900 stray dogs were put down.

To facilitate dog owners who didn't have time to join the mass vaccination drive, the agency will operate a vaccination post at its offices every day.

Veterinarian Wayan Mardiana from the provincial husbandry agency said the mass vaccination drive adhered to standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), which stipulates that at least 75 percent of the total canine population in an affected area should be vaccinated within one month.

"We hope that by the end of 2010, there will be no more rabies cases in Bali," he said.

With a stated goal of being free from rabies by 2012, the Bali administration will launch an annual program called "Rabies Vaccination Week" in March. The program will be regularly conducted three times a year until the island has been declared free from the infection, which has caused 29 fatalities so far.

"We will hold Rabies Vaccination Week three times a year to be able to immunize the entire canine population," Mardiana said.

Starting this year, the agency has secured 240,000 doses of vaccines. An additional 210,000 doses will be received from the WHO later this year, Mardiana added.