Animals vaccinated for rabies
210 dogs and 2 cats vaccinated during the rabies vaccination campaign
The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs and the Veterinary services in Ermelo held a rabies vaccination campaign last Thursday in Wesselton where 210 dogs and two cats were vaccinated.
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain in warm-blooded animals. This disease is transmitted by animals, most commonly by a bite from an infected animal and occasionally by other forms of contact.
Rabies is almost fatal if post-exposure treatment is not administered prior the onset of severe symptoms. In South Africa, the main sources of the virus are dogs, black backed jackal and the yellow mongoose. In Mpumalanga the main sources are dogs and the yellow mongoose.
Signs and symptoms from domestic animals include behavioural change where they become wild and aggressive and in a case of wild animals, they become tame. Paralysis eventually occurs and then death, however different animals exhibit different signs.
In cats and dogs, some of the signs include aggression, howling, attacking without warning, eating of soil and sticks as well as biting at imaginary flies.
In humans, people are infected when they are bitten by an infected animal and its possible for people to be infected via contamination of cuts. It normally takes two to ten weeks for people and animals to show clinical symptoms once bitten. Once clinical symptoms occur in people or animals, no treatment is possible and death eventually occurs.
To prevent this disease, it is important that cats and dogs vaccinated to decrease the risk to humans. Young animals should be vaccinated twice in the first year and then annually there after. The vaccine is harmless and will not make the animals sick.
The veterinary service also warns the community not to handle or go near strange animals, wild animals that seem tame and do not run away from you.
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