Abstract

Rabies is a major viral anthropozoonosis of public health significance. The animals play a crucial role in maintenance and circulation of the rabies virus. Determining the occurrence of rabies in animals was implicated as a fundamental step to guide prevention and control efforts. The study involved cross sectional study by retrieval previously recorded cases between September 2009 and January 2012, Ethiopia. Suspected animal rabies cases were quarantined for 10 days observation period and brain samples were tested for confirmation using direct fluorescent antibody test. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS program and Chi-square and analysis of vari¬ance (ANOVA) was used to assess the significance difference. Domestic and wild animals were associated with human exposure and death cases. However, dogs were the culprit for the highest human fatal (97%) and human exposure cases (89.5%). Only 2% of human deaths were associated with cats and wild animals. Higher rabies positivity was noted in owned dogs 138 (74.2%) than ownerless ones 49 (25.8%). The difference was statistically significant (p=0.0001). Further, all positive cases in cats were apparent in those believed to be owned. Majority of positive results associated with dogs were aged above 12 months 70 (81.4%), 10 (11.6%) were from the age between 6 and 12 months followed by 3 to 6 months 6 (7%). Positive cases in cats were more common among those aged above 12 months (60%) followed by 6 to 12 (20%) and 3 to 6 months (20%) of age. Of the animals with positive results, 4 (1.6%) were vaccinated against rabies. Overall, majority of the dogs had no vaccination history 247 (96.1%), only 10 (3.9%) were found to have been vaccinated. On contrary, none of the cats were vaccinated against rabies. The number of submitted samples had a direct correlation with the number of positive results (p< 0.05), however, no season variation was encountered. Five sub-cities that border with another region showed a significantly higher occurrence (p< 0.05) of exposure and confirmed cases and post exposure prophylaxis. Thus, integrated implementation of compulsory animal management, immunization and creation of awareness is highly imperative.

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