Christmas donation for Afya Serengeti

Every year, instead of traditional season’s greetings cards, Intervet supports charitable projects or organizations with activities that benefit animal welfare and people. This year Intervet’s Christmas donation is dedicated to the Afya Serengeti project. This project focuses on rabies control through vaccination of domestic dogs and involves:

• Caring for our fellow humans, with special attention for children

• Caring for dogs, man’s trusted companion

• Caring for the endangered wildlife

The impact of rabies
Rabies is a devastating viral disease that attacks the nervous system and is transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. It can affect dogs, cats and wild animals such as bats and foxes and is also zoonotic, which means it can spread from animals to people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 55,000 people die from rabies each year. 95% of human deaths occur in Asia and Africa and approximately, 45 to 60 % of human rabies victims are under 15 years old. Once the clinical signs of rabies start to develop, the outcome is invariably fatal.

The good news, however, is that rabies is totally preventable through prophylaxis for humans and a vaccination program for domestic dogs. Domestic dogs are an important part of rural communities. They act as security guard, protecting livestock from predators and are also useful in hunting and providing companionship.

Intervet’s support
For several years Intervet has supported the Afya Serengeti’ (meaning health of Serengeti) project to help control the incidence of animal and human rabies in north-western Tanzania.  Run by epidemiologist Dr Sarah Cleaveland, from the Centre of Tropical Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the  UK, the initiative aims to bring widespread canine vaccination to the famous nature reserve to eradicate the rabies threat for humans and animals alike.
The campaign has already been a huge success:

• Afya Serengeti’s vaccination clinics report a staggering drop in reported animal cases of rabies. The drop from 27% in 2003 to only 2% in 2006 clearly links to the dramatic drop from 10% to just 0.6% of households reporting bite injuries in the same period.

• The vaccination program also proved to be successful for the wildlife with the resurgence of the African wild dog population, which was previously nearing extinction.

Encouraged by this success, Intervet has decided to intensify its support this year. This year’s Christmas donation will be added to the support generated by our participating country organizations and their customers to increase the level of vaccination to 200,000 dogs. Maintaining this level of vaccination should assist in eradicating canine rabies in this famous nature reserve. Similar experiences in other parts of the world show that rabies is a preventable disease if a sufficient percentage of all domestic dogs is vaccinated.