Palembang City Targets Free Rabies By 2024

A dog gets a rabies injection (ANTARA)

PALEMBANG - The Department of Agriculture and Food Security (DPKP) of Palembang City, South Sumatra, is targeting rabies-free by 2024.

The head of the Palembang City DPKP, Sayuti, said that to meet this target, his party provides rabies vaccine services and microchips for rabies-infectious animals such as dogs, cats, and so on for free.

"We provide rabies vaccination services and microchip installation for rabies-contagious animals for free, so people who raise cats and dogs can do it at a Puskeswan located in Gandus District," he said, Monday, March 6.

To vaccinate rabies against wild rabies-contagious animals, he said, his party is collaborating with the animal lover community in this city.

"So it is the animal lover communities that collect and carry the animals and when they have been collected and vaccinated," he said.

He explained that the installation of the microchip was only done to make it easier to identify when a rabies-prone animal bit a person.

"The microchip installation is prioritized for dogs because 90 percent of rabies transmitters are dogs," he said.

In addition, he said that his party also carried out vaccination ball pick-up services to each village in Palembang City.

"Each kelurahan will gather a community of animal owners who transmit rabies at least 10 people so we can vaccinate," he said.

Then, the Palembang City DPKP collects data on animals that have been vaccinated through the Rabies Infectious Animal Identity Card (HPR) application and can be downloaded on the Playstore by the public.

"Based on the application, animals have vaccinated as many as 4,700 animals, with details of 4,000 cat 700 dogs. We also hope that people will continue to routinely vaccinate because the rabies vaccine cannot be done once, at least once a year," he said.