Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 16 2007 | By: admin

Following is the headline of our vaccination campaign poster.

‘HATARI HATARI KICHAA CHA MBUA!’
(Danger Danger Rabies!)

Although Canine Distemper Virus is No.1 concern for wildlife conservationists, for an ordinary villager in the rural Africa, Rabies is No.1 concern when it comes to canine diseases. It kills dogs, livestock and even human being.

Most of the rabid dog attack victims here in the Trans Mara are young children up to age 15. This was no exception in the town of Angata Barakoi, near Tanzanian border. Today we came across a funeral of a small boy who died after getting bitten by rabid dog.

‘We have never had anyone coming to vaccinate our dogs here and now we lost a small boy because of the rabid dog.’

As we announced the date for the vaccination, the chief of the area promised us that all the dogs from this village would be brought to the town center. Before we started the vaccination, we took hospital records from Trans Mara district. We hope that this mass vaccination will reduce sad incident such as this case.

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 16 2007 | By: admin

We have just entered Kalenjin land after nightmarish dog vaccination in the Maasai land. After dealing with community with little interest in dog welfare and 750 mistreated dogs, we were pleasantly surprised by people’s attitude towards dogs in this area. Yes, the owners are willing to bring their dogs to the center point in the village and they are willing to help in dog handling too! Wow, what a change from Maasai land!

In the Maasai land, we were always amazed at people’s unwillingness to help when it comes to dog handling. It was usually easier for us to handle the dogs rather than the actual owner since majority of them ended up strangling the dog with bare hands. In one case, in a pathetic attempt to calm down the somewhat hyper dog, the owner decided to put a rope on dog’s neck, pulled the rope from the top of a fence till dog blacked out. We found out that it is never a good idea to ask a help from grown Maasai men or women when it comes to dog handling as people find it funny when asked to talk nicely to a dog. For now we have luxury of having dogs brought into village center on the designated date. After next week, we return once again to our beloved Maasai land…

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 13 2007 | By: admin

I have been noting down the names for 600 dogs since we started the vaccination. Today I found a dog named Tokyo! (its litter mate was called Europe) I almost forgot that I found a dog named Arigato (thank you in Japanese) couple of weeks ago. I am pleased to see that some Maasai are taking interest in my country.

Another interesting hanging out place in the Mara.

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 12 2007 | By: admin

Have you heard of African dog breed called ‘Rhodesian Ridgeback’? Originally bred in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), this breed was used for lion hunting. These dogs are known for its ferocity, strength and many people in Nairobi keep them as guard dogs. As the name suggests, its most unique feature is the ridge on the back.

Well, today I found a Maasai ridgeback! Interesting thing is that I found two different dogs from this area with ridges. I wonder if it is just a simple phenotypic mutation or someone brought a real ridgeback long time ago.

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Category: Dogs | Date: Aug 12 2007 | By: admin

After interviewing many local Maasai, we recruited a dog handler who will be helping me with the mass vaccination. Due to temperment of the dogs here in the Maasai land, we will be doing house-to-house visits. It will be much easier if we can have one vaccination day for different area, but unfortunately this is an impossible task. No one is able to bring their dog to one designated place nor put a chain on their dog.

The vaccinated dogs will be tagged using a red plastic collar so that people will be able to identify the vaccinated dog. Since Maasai are very fond of color red, we specifically chose red collar to suite their taste. We started the vaccination from the area called Kimintet and are moving along the escarpment. Now after more than 500 dogs, we are pleased to see many escarpment dogs roaming around the savannah with their red collars.

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Category: Dogs, Life of a Vet | Date: Aug 12 2007 | By: admin

After two weeks of visit to the first world, now I am back in Kenya! I have tried to upload the video images from Mara but it seems like the internet connection is too slow. I took some good footage and plan to upload when I am next in Nairobi.

Following the meeting with the epidemiologists regarding the dog vaccination in the Mara, our project decided to collaborate with both DVO and the Carnivore Disease Project in Tanzania. The Tanzanian team lead by Dr. Cleaveland has been doing dog vaccination against Rabies and Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) for many years and we thought this collaboration would be of great force to Trans Mara. Our aim is to complete the ring vaccination around Serengeti and Mara ecosystem so that the park/reserve face no risk of wild carnivore contracting CDV from domestic dogs living on the vicinity of the boundary. Thanks to Intervet International, we now have received donation of 10,000 rabies vaccines and 10,000 CDV vaccines! This generous donation enabled us to allocate AKF and wildlifedirect donation towards much needed operational cost of vaccination campaign.

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