Malappuram begins fourth phase of domestic animal rabies vaccination
Malappuram’s fourth-phase rabies vaccination campaign for domestic animals began on Tuesday and will run through October 27 on working days. The district aims to vaccinate all domestic dogs and cats, with services available at veterinary hospitals as part of Kerala’s rabies eradication programme.
The fourth phase of Malappuram district’s anti-rabies vaccination campaign for domestic animals began on Tuesday and will continue until October 27 on working days. District panchayat president P.A. Jabbar Haji inaugurated the campaign at the District Veterinary Centre.
The drive is part of the Animal Husbandry department’s rabies eradication programme. Haji urged pet owners to have all dogs and cats vaccinated against rabies. He also said the district panchayat would support measures to control stray dogs and implement the animal birth control programme.
District Animal Husbandry Officer S. Nandakumar described rabies as a fatal zoonotic disease and stressed vaccination as a means of preventing its spread. Vaccination has begun at veterinary hospitals across the district.
The campaign aims to cover all domestic dogs and cats in Malappuram. The report cited the 2019 census, which recorded 18,277 domestic dogs in the district, but did not provide a current estimate for the number of animals expected to be vaccinated. The campaign is the fourth phase of the district’s vaccination effort.
It is being conducted through veterinary facilities during the working days of the campaign period, which ends on October 27. The district panchayat president said authorities would also support stray-dog control and animal birth control measures. The supplied material did not give details of the number of stray animals targeted or the specific methods planned beyond the reference to the ABC programme.
Shahina Niyasi, chairperson of the district panchayat’s development standing committee, presided over the inauguration. Officials from the Animal Husbandry department and the Animal Disease Control Project also attended. The event included remarks by veterinary and livestock-management officials, while district epidemiologist A.
Shameem proposed the vote of thanks. The campaign’s stated objective is to prevent rabies by increasing vaccination coverage among domestic animals throughout Malappuram.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.