By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has targeted between 15,000 and 20,000 dogs for rabies vaccination across the six Area Councils.
The Mandate Secretary, FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Mr Sulieman Ango, disclosed this while monitoring the two-week vaccination exercise on Wednesday in Gwagwalada Area Council.
He said the exercise is part of efforts to contain and ultimately eliminate rabies in the nation’s capital.
Ango said the administration was determined to build a strong protective barrier against the transmission of the virus.
The secretary said more than 100 veterinary officers had been deployed to strategic locations across the FCT to ensure that as many animals as possible were reached during the fortnight campaign.
According to him, the intervention was necessary to prevent the localized outbreak reported in Kwali and Gwagwalada from spreading to other parts of the territory.
“We have the firm conviction that by vaccinating 15,000 to 20,000 dogs and cats, we are going to stop the spread of the virus.
“From what we have recorded so far, two weeks is sufficient time for our team to cover this scope,” he said.
The Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Karnak Dandam, said the campaign was designed to cover all 62 wards of the FCT, adding that vaccination remains the most effective way of preventing rabies.
Dandam warned that rabies becomes fatal once clinical symptoms appear in an infected person, but noted that the disease is preventable through proper vaccination of animals.
“Rabies is a very deadly disease. Once a rabid dog bites a human being and the clinical signs set in, there is no survival, but it is 100 per cent preventable once the dogs are vaccinated,” he said.
