Bhubaneswar: Stray dogs have been vaccinated in 35% of the city’s 67 wards during the drive that has been going on since a month, according to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) anti-rabies vaccination report released on Monday. The drive is targeted to be completed in two more months.In the last census, 47,000 dogs were counted and so far 30% have been vaccinated. “While we have covered 23 wards in the city, 44 more wards need attention in the next two months,” said Prasant Sika, nodal officer of the animal birth control (ABC) programme.He said dogs vaccinated prior to the ongoing special drive are easily identifiable because of the ear tagging and they are not being counted in the current vaccination report.In Jan, BMC signed a tripartite agreement with the College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Worldwide Veterinary Service and Mission Rabies India for vaccination of stray dogs on mission mode.While most of the stray dogs are being caught using nets at the places where they roam, vaccinated and then released, the friendly ones are caught by hands. The teams prefer early morning to carry out the drive. “To check anti-body in dogs, random sero-surveillance will be taken up. Blood samples from vaccinated dogs will be taken up very soon since a dog is eligible for antibody test after 21 days from the vaccination,” said Sika.Prior to the mass vaccination drive that began from March 30, only 5,000 dogs were vaccinated until then, largely those that underwent sterilization under the ABC program and received anti-rabies shots during quarantine at kennels.
