Vaccination campaign protects tigers from dog-transmitted rabies

Officials at the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh (northeast India) have vaccinated hundreds of stray and local dogs near the park’s perimeter to protect its resident big cat population from deadly canine-transmitted diseases including rabies. The vaccination campaign was carried out in late December 2015, and over 600 dogs, mostly unowned and living near 13 villages proximal to the park, were captured, vaccinated, and then later released. In addition, each captured dog underwent a blood draw to confirm the presence of current or past infections, and all newly vaccinated dogs were marked with an identity collar to indicate their updated vaccination status.

By vaccinating all dogs–owned and stray–in a 5-km-wide margin all around the park’s perimeter, officials hope they have created a rabies-free zone that provides tigers a buffer from unvaccinated animals, protecting the resident felines from the possibility of contracting a canine-transmitted disease. The big cats at Panna, like those at most Indian tiger reserves, are not restricted from moving outside the boundaries of the park; and there are no fences to mark the perimeter, permitting wildlife and other animals living proximal to the park to roam freely inside the tigers’ habitat. Unvaccinated dogs living in the perimeter place tigers at risk for rabies and other diseases such as canine distemper and parvo, all viruses that can be passed from canine to feline with deadly effects.

Recent incidents where local dogs have attacked tigers have raised concerns amongst park officials about the potential of the local unvaccinated dog population to spread disease to the park’s tigers and have spurred similar campaigns in other tiger reserves in India.

In 2013, a dog–later confirmed to have rabies–attacked and bit one of Panna’s male tigers. The tiger survived after treatment with an anti-rabies vaccine, but the attack highlighted the vulnerability of the reserve to infiltration by rabid or infectious animals and exposure to deadly diseases.

Recently in 2015, one of Panna’s tigresses died suddenly from the highly contagious canine distemper virus. Park veterinarians identified the female as one that roamed the park’s perimeter and suspected that the tiger was poaching local dogs to supplement her diet. It was surmised that consumption of infected dog meat may have led to the transmission of the virus and the cat’s subsequent death. In response to the loss of the tigress, officials conducted blood tests on all other tigers in the park for distemper, as well as initiated the current inoculation strategy that has targeted all local dogs.

Other tiger reserves in India are following suit and taking similar measures to protect their big cats from canine-transmitted diseases. The Humane Society International (HSI) recently conducted a dog population survey and found that there were over 17,000 dogs living in the 5 km buffer zone near Jim Corbett National Park, a wildlife sanctuary also located in northeastern India. Of these, over 13,000 dogs were found to be unvaccinated.

“The majority of the dogs in this buffer zone are either owned by the villagers or are in their care. There are innumerable instances wherein the dogs are snatched away at night by big cats. Largely unaware of these infections and the available vaccinations for it, the villagers have not given vaccinations to these dogs,” said Amit Chaudhari who led the HIS team in an interview with The Times of India.

The results of the completed HSI survey indicate that all dogs in the buffer zone should be vaccinated immediately and have prompted HSI to prepare a proposal on how to implement a similar vaccination campaign at other tiger reserves in India. The proposal is currently under review with India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority.

Submitted by Laura Baker, GARC, based on reports in The Indian Express, “Madhya Pradesh: Dogs get shots to save Panna tigers” and “3-yr-old Panna tiger under watch after rabid dog bites its tail,” in The Hindustani Times, “Dogs threatening tigers in MP’s Panna reserve,” and in The Times of India, “17,000 dogs in Corbett a big threat to its big cats.”