Annual Report 2008.pdf - Vets Beyond Borders

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vets bey nd borders Highlights Representatives from the SARAH project's major sponsor, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, visited the programme. Ms Ghyslaine Calmels-Bock (CEO) and Ms Brigitte Auloy (Indian programme liaison) have pledged ongoing support from the Foundation. World Veterinary Day was celebrated in Gangtok on 28 April 2008 with Sikkim's first ever Pet Dog Care Show. This event was organised in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department and was a resounding success, with 38 competitors and hundreds of onlookers. In April, SARAH veterinarians performed a life-saving caesarean operation on a common leopard at the Himalayan Zoological Park. Unfortunately, the one cub was dead, but the life of the mother was ultimately saved and it is hoped that she may breed again in the future. Goals The SARAH team is aiming to commence work in isolated parts of north Sikkim at the end of this year's monsoon. The monsoon makes work extremely difficult in rural regions of Sikkim as many roads are impassable for weeks, due to landslides. The SARAH teams continue to function in all but the most unfavourable conditions. Upon completion of work in the north, the entire state of Sikkim will have been visited once. However, this does not mean that our task will be finished, as SARAH teams must return to each location on a yearly basis to re-vaccinate previous patients and sterilise and vaccinate new dogs. The Government of Sikkim and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation are committed to ensuring that the SARAH Programme will continue long into the future. Planning is underway to establish the SARAH Programme as a separate section of the Animal Husbandry, Livestock, Fisheries and Veterinary Services Department. This is expected to occur in 2009-2010 and will ensure the long term sustainability of the programme, with subsequent funding to be guaranteed by the Government of Sikkim. The generous support of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, without which this unique and successful programme could not function, is gratefully acknowledged. Dr Beth McGennisken Programme Manager _____ 7
vets bey nd borders Ladakh The Leh Street Dog Sterilisation Project has continued its operations in the remote region of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas. Thanks to the generous support of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and the Marchig Trust, VBB and the Ladakh Animal Care Society (LACS) have been able to continue working towards street dog population control in Leh and surrounding villages, as well as providing veterinary care and rabies vaccinations to these dogs. The second annual project was completed in September 2007. A total of 911 dogs were surgically sterilised and many others provided with veterinary care. During this time, representatives of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation visited our project and made a commitment to assisting us to continue and expand the project in following years. This support allowed the LACS facility to remain open for the first time throughout the winter months. The winter of 2007/08 was particularly cold, with temperatures below -20°C and heavy snowfalls. LACS staff were on call to save sick and injured animals from the streets and to provide food, shelter and veterinary care. Clinical work This year the flank approach for ovario-hysterectomy has been adopted, due to the obvious advantages that this procedure offers to street dog sterilisation programmes. Weekly vaccination camps have been held in and around Leh to encourage pet owners to have their dogs vaccinated. Successful negotiations with the District Commissioner in 2007 have resulted in the cost of vaccines now being covered by the Government. There have been two such vaccination days during the 2008 annual project (in the Tibetan camps near Choglamsar) which have proved popular. Radio advertising, posters and word of mouth have been effective in informing the public of this free dog vaccination scheme, and the Chief Medical Officer has offered to send a doctor to provide human rabies information to the local community. Plans have been drawn up to build eleven individual pens in the currently unfinished pen. These will be extremely useful for housing any dogs that are sick, aggressive or difficult to handle. A solar-powered refrigerator has been ordered in which to keep the rabies vaccines which are currently stored at the Animal Husbandry office. This will also allow us to acquire and store vincristine for the treatment of transmissible venereal tumours (TVTs), a distressing and sadly common condition. Finally, Dr Rebecca Traub, the veterinary parasitologist from the University of Queensland, and her PhD student, Dr Aza Puteri, visited Leh to collect samples from 100 Ladakhi dogs for their Bayer-sponsored research into blood-borne and gastrointestinal parasites of dogs in India. Unfortunately, both succumbed to the high altitude and were unable to spend much time at the clinic. However, they were excited about the data which this work will provide - for example, the incidence of the fatal echinococcus multilocularis in Leh (a parasite well recognised in the similar high and dry environment of the Tibetan Plateau); whether the ubiquitous flat fly or “bigu” may be a vector for parasites; whether the tapeworms detected in the local dogs are actually Dipylidium, in which case, they would be existing in the absence of the cat flea. An incidental but not surprising finding was that the haematocrits of Leh dogs are significantly higher than that of lower altitude Delhi canines. We are grateful to the hard working staff of the Ladakh Animal Care Society, particularly to the manager Kunzang Namgyal, and to all the volunteers who came to work on the project under sometimes challenging conditions. Dr Janet Perry Project director Rabies vaccination has become increasingly important since the outbreak of rabies in Nyuma in eastern Ladakh in March this year. Although there have been several suspected cases previously, this was the first confirmed case of rabies in Ladakh. Facilities At the shelter, improvements such as tree planting, new toilets and perimeter fencing were completed during the spring of this year. Current construction work at the clinic will provide a dedicated pharmacy, prep room and surgery. The current surgery will be used as an office and treatment room. _____ 8
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