Dog ecology, dog bites and rabies vaccination rates in Bauchi State, Nigeria

A study of dog ecology, dog bites and rabies vaccination rates was carried out in Bauchi the capital city of Bauchi State, Nigeria using direct street counts and questionnaire survey administered on 10% of the city streets selected by stratified random sampling. The questionnaire was designed to obtain data in order to determine the dog to human population ratio, dog management and care, cases of dog bites, consequences of the bites and frequencies of rabies outbreak. The estimated dog population of street counts and compound counts were 5310 and 7670, respectively. The overall human to dog ratio of 4.1:1 was established. The mean number of individuals per dog owning compound was 9.6±0.498 (SEM) and the mean number of dogs owned per dog owning compound was 2.3±0.108 (SEM). Majority of the dogs owned were local breeds (62.8%) aged between 1 and 5years old and managed under partial or no confinement. The dogs were mostly used for security (69.5%) purposes. Dog owners reported low vaccination coverage (26.4%), level considered not sufficient to prevent rabies transmission. About 12.4% of dog bite victims died and majority of which (71.43%) manifested nervous signs before death. Domestic dogs have been shown to be tolerated and kept in Bauchi but poorly managed in terms of feeding, confinement and vaccination thereby constituting a continuous risk to domestic animals and humans.