Investigation of the temporal roaming behaviour of free-roaming domestic dogs in Indigenous communities in northern Australia to inform rabies incursion preparedness

Elizabeth K Maher,Michael P Ward,Victoria J Brookes

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51447-8

Elizabeth K Maher, Michael P Ward + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51447-8

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Oct 17, 2019
Citations: 23	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Sydney, Charles Sturt University

Abstract

Australia is canine rabies free but free-roaming, domestic dog populations in remote northern communities are at risk of an incursion due to proximity to rabies-endemic south-east Asia. Unrestricted contact between dogs could facilitate rabies spread following an incursion, and increase the impact on both dogs and people. Whilst dog vaccination is the foundation of rabies prevention, control strategies could be enhanced by understanding the temporal pattern of roaming and associated risk factors, so that movement restrictions can be targeted. Global positioning system datasets from 132 dogs in eight Indigenous communities in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) of Australia were analysed using regression methods. The influence of risk factors (including age, sex, location, season and hour of day) on dogs’ distance from their residences were assessed. Dogs roamed furthest in the NPA and during the dry season. Daily peaks in mean roaming distance were observed at 1000–1100 hrs and 1700–1800 hrs in the Torres Strait, and 1700–1800 hrs in the NPA. These findings demonstrate that understanding community-specific temporal roaming patterns can inform targeted movement restrictions during an outbreak of rabies in remote communities in northern Australia.

Highlights

Australia is canine rabies free but free-roaming, domestic dog populations in remote northern communities are at risk of an incursion due to proximity to rabies-endemic south-east Asia
Australia is currently free of canine-rabies[3] but the proximity of northern Australia to rabies-endemic Indonesia places this area at risk of an incursion[5]
Data were collated from existing GPS telemetry datasets collected from free-roaming domestic dogs in Indigenous communities in the Torres Strait (TS) and the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) of Queensland, northern Australia (Fig. 1) between September 2013 and March 2017 (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Australia is canine rabies free but free-roaming, domestic dog populations in remote northern communities are at risk of an incursion due to proximity to rabies-endemic south-east Asia. Peaks in mean roaming distance were observed at 1000–1100 hrs and 1700–1800 hrs in the Torres Strait, and 1700–1800 hrs in the NPA These findings demonstrate that understanding community-specific temporal roaming patterns can inform targeted movement restrictions during an outbreak of rabies in remote communities in northern Australia. Domestic dogs are abundant in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) communities in northern Australia[10,11] Owned, these dogs roam freely, posing a risk in the case of a rabies incursion due to the potential for high contact rates[10]. Due to the predicted influence of contact rates on disease spread, adjunct measures such as movement control could reduce the potential for spread

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