STUDENTS: MELISSA BRAVO, CARSON GRANT & AMY LOWE

Rabies is a serious public health concern in India. An estimated 20,000 people die every year from the disease – accounting for nearly 36% of all rabies fatalities worldwide. The majority of the victims are children under the age of fifteen, and those living in rural villages are most at risk. Free- roaming dogs, more often than not, are the carriers of this terrible disease.

Since 2004, Marwar Trust in Jodhpur, Rajasthan has been working hard to control stray dogs and eradicate rabies from the region. Using a high-intensity Animal Birth Control (ABC) and rabies vaccination program, Marwar Trust sends out teams of dog catchers to capture street dogs and bring them to their shelter. Here the dogs are spayed or neutered, vaccinated against rabies, and given a distinctive notch in the left ear. After a few days of recovery from surgery, they are released in the location where they were originally captured.

Alongside this program, the Trust organizes dog-bite prevention and rabies awareness lessons in the local schools. For children that do not go to school, the information is provided on the streets through traditional puppet shows.

To date, over 48,000 dogs have passed through the Marwar Trust shelter. Research projects are tracking the successfulness of this program and are helping to increase our understanding about the dog population and rabies issue in Jodhpur.

Together with the Alliance for Rabies Control, VWB/VSF is helping to support this incredible program. This summer we will be sending three veterinary students, Melissa Bravo, Carson Grant and Amy Lowe, to work at Marwar Trust where they will be participating in a number of projects including dog behavioural and ecology surveys, and laboratory studies.