Ecology of Dogs in Developing Countries in Relation to Rabies Control Programs

Summary

The report focuses principally on the Central Philippines where successful rabies control has been maintained for 20 years. Dogs are the sole reservoir hosts of rabies in the Philippines with secondary transmission to cats and to livestock. Wildlife populations are very small, except for rodents and bats which have not been demonstrated to enter transmission cycles.

In the area of this study, there was 1 dog to every 4.5 residents or 1,922 dogs per square kilometer. Less than 0.1% of the dogs in the area was unrecognized and not accepted by local residents and appropriately classed as stray dogs. However, dogs which were recognized as belonging in the area but which obtained food at 2 or more households and moved without restriction were common. Such dogs were classed as community, as compared to privately owned, dogs and varied from 42.1% of the dog population in lower class areas to 1.3% in upper middle class areas. Only 26% of privately owned dogs were considered as pets and among community dogs, only 7%. The average life expectancy for dogs in the study area was 2.8 years.

Rabies control, which was initially not achieved by vaccination at the initiative of owners or by removal of unvaccinated dogs, was successfully achieved by house to house capture and vaccination without disruption of the population of privately owned and community dogs. The vaccination levels have been a minimum of 80% in each community and the optimal schedule for campaigns has been every 2 years.