BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday launched a mass dog vaccination drive as part of the exercise to eliminate dog-mediated rabies from the country by 2030.

Launching the drive in presence of other officials, mayor Sulochana Das said the civic body has set a target to vaccinate around 40,000 dogs this year.

BMC officials said rabies is a 100 per cent fatal zoonotic disease, primarily transmitted through bites, scratches or licks from infected rabid dogs. The drive has been launched in line with the National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination (NAPRE).

The BMC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mission Rabies India-Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) and the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry at OUAT to vaccinate the stray dogs.

BMC nodal officer for implementation of the anti-rabies vaccination project Prasanta Kumar Sika said, a City Rabies Task Force has been constituted under NAPRE guidelines to monitor the drive. “The drive may take 75 to 90 days to cover the streets of the state capital,” he said.

As part of the drive, the vaccination teams will visit the streets and catch the stray dogs for administration of anti-rabies vaccine (ARV). Post vaccination, the dogs will be marked using a non-toxic biological marker and released at the same location. Real-time data regarding their vaccination will be collected through a mobile app developed by Mission Rabies India-WVS.

As per the first comprehensive dog census of the city carried out by BMC last year, the state capital is home to a total 47,126 stray dogs, which account for around 3.2 per cent of the city’s 1.3 million human population.

Sika said at least 70 pc vaccination coverage is required to create herd immunity against rabies infection. While 37,000 dogs will be vaccinated through the mass vaccination drive between April and June, another 3,000 will get the jab under the animal birth control (ABC) programme during the year.