• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) has proposed a PHP10-million budget for the purchase of rabies vaccines with a target to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the total dog population in Negros Occidental.
Dr. Placeda Lemana, provincial veterinarian, yesterday said that they were able to vaccinate only 45 percent or 123,000 of the 200,000 dogs in the province by end of Dec. 31 last year.
Lemana said there is a drop in vaccination rate since the PVO has not received supply of rabies vaccines from the Department of Agriculture in the past year.
PVO also logged 17 positive cases of rabies among dogs, of which one was in the highly-urbanized Bacolod City, last year, with two suspected rabies on humans, both tagged as fatalities.
Lemana added that they are also encouraging the local government units in Negros Occidental to purchase their own supply of rabies vaccines.
Rabies can be prevented through vaccination of dogs and prevention of dog bites, according to the Department of Health. | GB
