Dogs and rabies control in Krabi town municipality

Abstract

Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease. Vaccination of dogs against rabies remains the most cost-efficient way of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies. Krabi Town Municipality authority has to take responsibility for the matter. The objective of the study was to control the dogs and cats in order to control rabies and get rid of an annoyance. Knowledge attituded and practice (KAP) survey was conducted to describe characteristics of communities in the municipal area, and test for independence (Chi-square) with various variables at the significance level 0.05. The program was operated from the fiscal year 2018-2020 (3 years). There were 5,472 owned animals and 2,249 stray animals licensed and vaccinated. It was believed that the control program, by licensing and vaccinating should reach at least 70% of dogs and cats’ population in the municipal area. Sterilization should decrease about 5,000 dog and cat's population, more or less. From a target population of 480 households, 251 households participated in the study (52.29%). Most of the respondents had a lack of comprehensive knowledge about treatable rabies (65.16%) and symptom of rabies dog (71.08%). Approximate 92.00% of respondents agreed to bring their own animals to get a rabies vaccination. 87.10% of respondents agreed to receive post exposure prophylaxis if bitten by animals. 88.76% of respondents did not agree to move unwanted dogs and cats out to be strayed. In a part of a practice, a major problem of not bring their own animals to get rabies vaccination was hard to catch (46.88%), hard to bring to get rabies vaccination (31.25%). Test for independence results revealed that education levels are related to appropriate attitudes at a statistically significant level (p-value=0.006). Age and occupation are related to appropriate practice for prevent rabies at a statistically significant level (p-value = 0.001; p-value=0.014). Adequate knowledge is related to appropriate attitudes at a statistically significant level (p-value < 0.001). In addition, adequate knowledge and appropriate attitude are related to appropriate practice to prevent rabies at a statistically significant level (p-value<0.001; p-value=0.049). Thus, giving education about the right knowledge of rabies prevention and building of understanding the laws and enforcement via different channels could be key factors in how to reach a successful program. And the acceptance that rabies were everyone's problem and responsibility should be accompanied.