Domestic animal rabies control: an overview.

Models for rabies control, particularly in dogs and cats in urban centers in Western nations, have been based on mandatory regular vaccination and restriction of movement of animals, with removal of unrestricted animals. When this three-component approach has been unsuccessful or only temporarily maintained, especially in developing countries, constraints on implementation and maintenance, rather than the model itself, have been blamed. The ecology of the reservoir animals, the relations of dogs and cats to people, and the development of culturally adaptable approaches to rabies control have received little serious attention. As a part of a rabies control pilot program assisted by the World Health Organization, the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, was chosen as an urban center of high rabies prevalence in animals and high rabies risk in people. The ecology of dogs and cats was investigated, and the findings were applied in developing a model based on community education, annual house-to-house vaccination campaigns, stabilization of the dog and cat populations, limitation of restriction and removal of animals to focal-outbreak control, and environmental measures to promote population control. Initial implementation has been successful, and longitudinal studies are in place to monitor maintenance of control.