Panchkula, Haryana

Rabies and Free-roaming dogs- studies of characteristics of dog; and the Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of urban residential settings in Panchkula district of North India

Rabies is endemic in Asia with India reporting the highest number of human deaths within the region, and primarily canine rabies is endemic in urban India. However, the true public health impact of rabies in India is unknown due to a lack of accurate data. Free-roaming dogs (FRDs) pose public health risks, particularly in these rabies-endemic areas, therefore a cost-effective estimation of the number of FRDs is an essential prerequisite for the control of rabies in these countries, as vaccination of at least 70% of the population is recommended to effectively control the disease. Although estimating the population size through sight-resight based maximum likelihood methodology generates an estimate closest to the actual size, it requires at least five survey efforts to achieve this.

The study was conducted in the urban settings of Panchkula municipal corporation in India, with GPS trackers, cameras, and notebooks, surveyors set out on motorcycles, surveying 15 sectors over two months. Traditionally, getting a reliable count required five or more surveys per sector—an expensive and time-consuming task. But the team tested a new tool: the Application SuperDuplicates (AS) online app. This tool, based on statistical modeling, could estimate dog populations using just two surveys.

In addition, a gross lack of awareness about the disease is one of the prime factors that leads to under-reporting of human mortality due to rabies. A study where questionnaire survey was administered to 204 residents of the urbanised municipality of Panchkula in north India to assess the influence of gender, age, family size, social status and dog ownership, over the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards rabies control and free-roaming dogs (FRD) in their locality. As rabies is endemic in the FRD population of Indian cities, there remains potential risk of rabies exposure to urban residents through dog-bites –

• the rabies awareness level of households from the low socio-economic level and those with children ≤14 years is significantly low;
• the respondents in the higher age group (≥35 years) and households from the low socio-economic level have gaps in the attitudes and practices towards rabies control; and
• dog-owning residents prefer a pedigree dog than a FRD, however, they would provide food and shelter to FRD due to compassion for them.

Rabies and Free-roaming dogs- studies of characteristics of dog; and the Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of urban residential settings in Panchkula district of North India- This is the heading