Vetnews | Julie 2024 28 « BACK TO CONTENTS For those of you that don’t know us, we are a registered CVC and a veterinary welfare that operates out of our home base in Fouriesburg in the eastern Free State. We are only +/- 10kms, from the border of Lesotho and then add to that equation is the fact that the eastern Free State covers a geographical area the size of England in the UK, and you can see that we have our work cut out for us when it comes to Rabies prevention. Although we have managed to keep Rabies numbers very low in our part of the world, this dreaded disease remains a priority and an ongoing concern and we have a strict policy that we vaccinate any dog or cat against Rabies that we encounter. We believe that this policy has helped in keeping the number or Rabies cases very low in the eastern Free State. Recent stats show that there has been a significant decline in reported cases since 2023 and there has only been 1 confirmed case of Rabies reported so far this year from our area. That said, there is no time to rest, and we need to keep the pressure on. This is the only way we can guarantee that our area does not suffer the same fate as other parts of the country and so we decided that we needed to extend our reach and to vaccinate even more animals against Rabies. So, we have embarked on an ambitious 6-month pilot project, and we are currently in the fourth month with the help and support of the South African Veterinary Association, Community Veterinary Clinics of SA Veterinary Association and vaccines being donated by Boehringer Ingelheim. We have hired a dedicated AWA, to go house-to-house in our township communities and once a week she targets a rural route to vaccinate dogs and cats on outlying farms. Our aim with this project is to vaccinate an additional 500+ animals per month and to date we have slightly exceeded that target. The additional bonus of having someone going door-to-door is that they are also able to chat to animal owners about responsible pet ownership and sterilisation and because of this we have also seen our sterilisations numbers jump significantly. As a team we have been certified and awarded recognition as a Rabies Centre for Excellence (RCE) from the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC). So, this means that all our team who are out in the field, have undergone the necessary training and have been certified and are now recognised as official DHCs (Dog Health Champions) – and that is something we are all very proud of. v An initiative of the SOUTH AFRICAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION Non-profit Company: 1998/016654/08 Non-profit Organisation: 000-234 NPO Public Benefit Organisation: 130001321 CVC News I CVC Nuus THE CLUNY ANIMAL TRUST’S ON THE FRONTLINE TO KEEP RABIES AT BAY IN THE EASTERN FREE STATE by Imogen Tarita from Cluny Animal Trust World Spay Day 2024 Sylvia Ntswaki (AWA) and Jemina Ntswaki (kennel worker) Nico Mahlohla (AWA) – December 2023
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