KUCHING: The Department of Veterinary Service (DVS) Sarawak received reports of 1,251 animal bite cases from January to April this year.
Most of the cases were caused by provoked animals.
DVS Director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud said the department received an average of 250 animal bite cases every month.
Hence, it was important to combat rabies through collaborations and awareness programmes with the community.
“We want the community to take good care of their pets with full responsibility to prevent animal bite incidents, especially when they involve rabies disease.
“We also want to make sure the health of the pets is taken care of, ensure they are vaccinated with anti-rabies vaccine yearly, get them microchipped and have licences,” said Dr Adrian.
He said this during the DVSS Rabies Awareness and Department of Agriculture (DOS) AgriCOP: Rami Gawia Semeba 2023 at Kampung Semeba community hall yesterday afternoon.
On the awareness programme, he said it was one of DVS’s initiatives to make the community aware of the dangers of rabies to humans.
“The disease started to spread in Serian Division in June 2017 with 59 lives lost out of the 66 rabies in human cases.
“So, it is clear that actions need to be taken and collaborations with local authorities and the community need to be continued to fight rabies disease,” he said.
Since rabies disease was declared in 2017 in Sarawak, a total of 233,377 dogs have been vaccinated with anti-rabies vaccine in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Dr Adrian also mentioned that the community in Kampung Semeba was also affected by rabies; five cases of positive sampling of animals infected with rabies had been identified this year.
