Rabies campaign waiting for drug OK from Jakarta: Expert

The death of a Klungkung temple priest on Saturday brought the number of people killed by rabies in Bali to 103. But the local animal control agency says it is still waiting for Jakarta to approve use of one drug before launching a new campaign to stop the disease.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) donated US$800,000 to fund canine rabies vaccinations throughout Bali, provided that infected or seriously ill animals would be euthanized with pentobarbitone, a fasting-acting barbiturate.

Local use of the euthanasia drug has yet to be approved by the central government, according to zoonotic diseases specialist and veterinarian Son Soeharsono.

“The central government has been slow to process the letter that would allow BAWA [Bali Animal Welfare Association] to obtain pentobarbitone. I don’t know why the process is so slow. All BAWA needs is permission to import the drug,” Soeharsono said.

Bali Animal Husbandry Agency head  Putu Sumantra said that the central government supported canine vaccinations, adding that 70 percent of the isle’s dogs would be inoculated against rabies by January.

“We can proceed with vaccinations now. We do not need to wait for the sign-off on pentobarbitone. I am hopeful it will be approved next week,” said Sumantra.

The Bali administration, regency heads and BAWA signed an agreement in September allowing  BAWA to launch a campaign to control and eradicate rabies through mass canine vaccinations, BAWA director Janice Girardi said.

Bali’s previous rabies campaign combined a vaccination program with euthanizing dogs with strychnine, Girardi said, adding that killing dogs would promote, not reduce, rabies infections, as new dogs would migrate into local “vacuums” created by euthanization.

Despite the lack of approval for pentobarbitone, BAWA and its official partners would create a vaccination program and train veterinarians, dog catchers and vaccination recorders to sweep the island “banjar by banjar” as soon the drug was approved, Girardi said.

“This is a carefully designed program that as of Nov. 1 has 17 core [vaccination] teams with that number doubling each month. There is no fast or easy answer for rabies. It is going door-to-door. Vaccinating is tedious work,” Girardi added.

A pilot program in Gianyar and Bangli earlier this year demonstrated that vaccinations offered the greatest hope of eradicating rabies from Bali by 2012, according to Girardi.

“There were 85,000 dogs vaccinated by just six teams. It was intensive work, but all research into rabies tells us this is the only viable solution,” Girardi said, adding the government and public must be vigilant to ensure no animals were imported into Bali without health certificates in the future.

“If there are outbreaks in the future, there will be far less damage since the dogs here will have been vaccinated. We will never again see a rabies epidemic such as the one we are now combating,” she said.