Rabies in dogs, livestock and wildlife: a veterinary perspective

While major progress has been made in the control of rabies in the Western Hemisphere, large parts of Europe and some parts of Asia, the disease continues to kill tens of thousands of people every year. Its highest burden is in resource-limited countries in Asia and Africa, disproportionately affecting children and poor rural communities. Today, domesticated dogs are responsible for the vast majority of human rabies cases. In late 2015, rabies experts from around the world gathered at the Rabies Global Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and launched the ambitious initiative to end deaths from dog-mediated human rabies by 2030. The most cost-effective and sustainable approach to achieve this goal is to eliminate the disease at source through mass dog vaccination. In this article, the role of and challenges faced by Veterinary Services in resource-limited settings in implementing the dog vaccination strategy to reduce the human rabies burden are discussed, together with the role of wildlife in disease control and why the 'One Health' approach is indispensable on the path towards a dog-rabies-free future.