Events Calender

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Rabies virus now confirmed in Bali's cattle and pig stocks

Date: Sat 14 Aug 20010
Source: Bali Discovery Tours, Home News [edited]



Rabies virus now confirmed in Bali's cattle and pig stocks
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Bali University officials have confirmed that rabies virus is now present
in the island's cattle and swine populations. Bali's continuing battle with
rabies entered a new and concerning phase with the news that evidence of
the deadly virus has been found in the cattle and swine populations of the
island. Radar Bali [news agency] quotes an unnamed source who confirmed
that scientific studies conducted at Bali's Udayana University reveal that
the rabies virus has been found in a sample of cows and pigs present on the
island.

This report was further confirmed by the head of the veterinarian
biomedical and molecular laboratory of the University, Professor I Gusti
Ngurah Mahardika, who said rabies had "certainly" spread to Bali's cattle
and pig population. Speaking on the phone with Radar Bali, Professor
Mahardika said, "Yes, laboratory tests show victims of rabies among cattle
and pigs."

Locations in which rabies have been confirmed in these farm animals are in
the regencies of Tabanan and Badung. While reluctant to give specific areas
for the outbreaks, Mahardika did confirm cattle infections in Tabanan and
in the Bukit Jimbaran area of the island.

Professor Mahardika said the cases of cattle and pig infection were tied to
bites from rabies-infected dogs. The pigs and cows bitten by the dogs
eventually displayed rabies symptoms and died. When asked of the risk of
infection from cows and pigs to humans, Mahardika discounted such risks as
being minimal. He did warn, however, of the chance of infection to meat
handlers with open cuts that come in contact with the [secretions] of
infected pigs and cows.

He called for better public education on how rabies is spread in order to
address the ineffective way in which rabies has been dealt with in Bali to
date.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Bali Suffering Rabies Epidemic

Bali suffering rabies epidemic
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The Indonesian government is to vaccinate all dogs on the holiday
island of Bali to combat a raging rabies epidemic that has left 76
people dead over 2 years, an official said on Friday [6 Aug 2010].
Around 34 000 people have been bitten by dogs on the island, which is
popular with western tourists, in the first 7 months of this year
alone, authorities said.

"We aim to vaccinate all dogs in Bali by the end of this year to curb
the spread of rabies. We'll start to mass vaccinate the dogs in late
September
," Bali animal husbandry agency chief Putu Sumantra said.
"There are still hundreds of thousand of dogs that have not been
vaccinated. About 200 teams will be deployed to work in 700 villages," he said.

Unlike the rest of mainly Muslim Indonesia, where people do not
generally keep dogs, Bali is a predominantly Hindu island and dogs
are common either as pets or strays. Sumantra said that since 2008,
about 300 000 dogs had been vaccinated. Tens of thousands of stray
dogs
had also been culled.

Bali Health Agency head Nyoman Sutedja said there were 34 000 cases
of people being bitten by dogs in Bali this year, compared to 28 000
dog bites in the whole of 2009. "The rising cases of bites have made
us worry. We need more anti-rabies vaccines for people here," Sutedja
said. The latest victim of rabies, a 43-year old Balinese woman, died
on Tuesday [3 Aug 2010]. Australia and the US have issued travel
warnings to tourists about the prevalence of the disease.

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