Assessing factors associated with owner's individual decision to vaccinate their dogs against rabies: A house-to-house survey in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Madi Savadogo,Abdoul-Fataf Soré,Rianatou Bada Alambedji,Laibané Dieudonné Dahourou,Alima Hadjia Banyala Combari,Zékiba Tarnagda,Walter Ossebi

doi:10.14202/vetworld.2021.1014-1019

Abstract

Background and Aim:In rabies endemic area, dog vaccination is an effective way of controlling the disease in animals and humans if a minimum of 70% vaccination coverage is reached. This study aimed to identify dog demographics and household characteristics associated with dogs’ vaccination against rabies in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.Materials and Methods:A questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents with regard to their dogs’ demographics and their household characteristics. Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were performed to assess the association between explicative variables and the dogs’ vaccination status.Results:Overall, as per the findings of this study, it was determined that out of 424 dogs, 57.8% were reportedly vaccinated. The vaccination status was significantly associated with most of the household variables (e.g., gender of the respondent, age, level of education, main means of transportation, participation in a vaccination campaign, knowledge on rabies, and knowledge on dog vaccination) and the dogs’ variables (breed of dog, dog origin, purpose for keeping, confinement status, and perceived behavior) (p<0.05). Moreover, only religion, type of housing, knowledge of rabies transmission modes, and dog sex were not significantly associated with vaccination status (p>0.05).Conclusion:Our study generated informative data showing that animal health workers could develop effective rabies vaccination strategy planning by examining owned dog demographics and their husbandry practices in households.

Highlights

Rabies is considered a fatal disease transmitted to humans by bites mainly of domestic carnivores
This study aimed to identify dog demographics and household characteristics associated with rabies vaccination of dogs in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Similar results were reported by a previous study in Mexico [11]. This present study showed that the most frequent reasons cited by owners of unvaccinated dogs were the inability to restrain their dogs and the difficulty in transporting them to vaccination points, suggesting that combining the door-to-door approach and increasing the number of vaccination points could improve the accessibility to vaccines and the dog vaccination coverage in rabies-endemic countries

Summary

Introduction

Rabies is considered a fatal disease transmitted to humans by bites mainly of domestic carnivores. It remains a major public health threat in Burkina Faso [1,2,3,4]. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Dog vaccination is an effective way of controlling the disease in animals and humans if a minimum of 70% vaccination coverage is reached. This study aimed to identify dog demographics and household characteristics associated with dogs’ vaccination against rabies in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

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