T

he Bali administration will soon launch an island-wide sterilization campaign targeting pet and stray dogs both to control the numbers of the animal, which is known to be the primary carrier of rabies, as well as to contain the spread of the deadly disease.

Rabies experts agree that the ideal size of dog population on the resort island should be somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000. Currently, the dog population has reached more than 300,000.

“We will start the campaign this year,” provincial animal husbandry agency head Putu Sumantra said, adding that sterilization is one of several key measures in the island’s battle to regain its free rabies status.

“We are optimistic that Bali will be able to regain that status by the end of 2012. By that time, the island will aim to record no new rabies cases, either human or animal,” he stressed.

Bringing the dog population down to a manageable size is critical in the island’s future efforts to prevent and contain a rabies epidemic, he said.

However, the agency has yet to decide upon the specific method of sterilization that will be employed in the campaign. Presently, the available methods range from surgical intervention, such as neutering and spaying, to non-surgical methods, such as implanting a testosterone-suppressing substance and injecting a contraceptive drug.

The rabies outbreak started late-2008 in two villages in south Bali and quickly spread to every region on the island.

“The epidemic has claimed at least 132 lives and the government has poured billions of rupiah into containing it,” Sumantra said.

Mitigation efforts have yielded several positive results. A mass vaccination drive has succeeded in reaching 79 percent of the dog population and another drive is scheduled next November. The number of rabies cases in dogs has also decreased significantly; in 2010, out of 3,300 dog brain samples tested, 144 were positive for rabies.

“This year, out of 2,311 samples tested, only 67 were found to be positive. The sample’s size is smaller because the number of dogs displaying rabies symptoms was also smaller,” he added.

At the peak of the epidemic, rabies infected 273 villages across the island. Presently, of that number, 174 villages have recorded no new cases during the last 12 months.

— JP/Luh De Suriyan