Primary Animal Health Workers (PAHWs), 3rd and 4th year veterinary students, teachers from the Faculty of Agriculture, staff from local government offices and VWB team worked together to deliver the annual rabies vaccination campaign to dogs and cats in 11 villages outside of Vientiane, Laos. A total of 1160 dogs and 110 cats have been vaccinated and additional counts are still coming in. At the end of the primary campaign, we celebrated the success as a team with a group dinner and certificate presentation to all of the students who helped.
The success could not have been possible without the help of the owners of the cats and dogs. They are concerned enough about this deadly disease to bring animals that are not used to be handled to the vaccination site. All transportation means were used: rice bags, all sorts of baskets, motorbikes, tractors, fish nets, sweaters, cars, boxes, buckets, bicycles, wheelbarrows… and of course ropes used as leashes! PAHWs are still doing some follow up vaccinations for animals that were sick or too young at the time of the campaign and we are looking to achieve 80% vaccination coverage this year.
