Avoid the preventable: rabies eradication effort in Bangladesh through capacity building
South-South Cooperation on Rabies Elimination
Through Rabies Action Center of Excellence (RACE), FAO ECTAD Bangladesh has conducted a series of programmes to achieve this national goal. Dogs' vaccination, especially for roaming dogs, becomes essential to eradicate the rabies threat. Thus, a capacity-building programme becomes necessary to improve the animal health workers' skills and knowledge in catching roaming dogs. As a result, the Bangladesh government seek collaboration with the Indonesian government through cooperative work between FAO ECTAD Bangladesh and FAO ECTAD Indonesia, referring to Indonesia's past success in eradicating rabies with One Health approach for Mass Dog Vaccination (MDV) strategy.
Md. Habibur Rahman DVM & MPH, a National Technical Advisor-One Health Training and Outreach of FAO ECTAD Bangladesh, said, “When we started the rabies eradication programme to support the Government of Bangladesh, our country team leader, Eric Brum introduced us to a video documentary on dog catching and vaccination made by Bali A team, and we decided to start doing something similar and had a national tryout. Five national teams were selected through this competition, and they got Introductory training on dog catching and vaccination in Bogura. But it remained challenges to increases the vaccination coverage for hard-to-reach dogs. As a result, we sought support from Indonesia and finally we were happy to know the Bali “A-team” is coming over to facilitate the training to help national teams learn ninja techniques via practical demonstration and field practice.”
Accordingly, on 8-12 January 2023, FAO ECTAD Bangladesh facilitated a five-day advanced training on dog catching and vaccination for the national teams in Savar, Bangladesh, where five Indonesian experts invited as trainers, consisting of representatives from the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services (DGLAHS) of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), FAO ECTAD Indonesia, as well as three expert dog catchers from the Bali “A-Team” (the Indonesian champion team formed in 2015 by FAO ECTAD Indonesia, the Directorate of Animal Health (DAH) of the Indonesian MoA, and the Bali Provincial government, with support from USAID).
“This kind of training is very important since rabies is zoonotic, thus it needs skillful people and good teamwork in catching and vaccinating dogs which are provided through advanced training,” explained I Gede Arri Semara, the chief of Bali “A-team”. Using a similar approach to Bali “A-team” training, Indonesian trainers along with FAO Bangladesh facilitators have trained 10 veterinarians and 20 dog catchers. The in-field activity, where they applied their trained knowledge, resulted in the vaccination of 1,875 dogs in Ashulia Union in three days. FAQ sessions were also held with the community during in-field activity to increase public awareness of the rabies threat and understanding of the importance of vaccinations.
In-Field Capacity Building RACE Team Training
Five days of advanced training involved a one-day in-class training, including interactive presentations, focus groups discussion, and role-play games, and four days of deployment to the field for practical learning with a form of competition between teams. A participatory training technique in which teamwork is tested by exercising the knowledge directly on the field becomes the highlight of the training. “As a veterinarian, it was a new experience for me to get a chance to work at the field level. Applying the knowledge in the field could be different from what we know in theory. Besides learning a proper way of vaccination, we also got the opportunity to learn new restraining instruments,” said Jeni, one of the vaccinators as a veterinarian.
Best dog catchers of Bangladesh trained by Bangladesh and Indonesia
As one of the first dog catchers trained by the government, Razzak also acts as a trainer for other dog catchers as he shares what he learned from the training with his colleagues. Out of around 150 dog catchers in Bangladesh, only 20 people were part of the training. Thus, he hopes more training could be held. “Only five teams were trained here. I believe more people should be added since training like this teaches us techniques, we were previously unaware of. I was also unfamiliar with teamwork and was astounded by how effectively it works in the case of dog catching. This training also contributes to the goal of vaccinating 70% of the country's dog population,” said Razak, one of the best dog catchers.
Ahmad Gozali DVM, a Senior Technical Advisor for Zoonoses Control of FAO ECTAD Indonesia and one of the trainers, stressed, “South-South cooperation helps enhance the country's capacities in responding to disease threats. This training supported the RACE program in eradicating rabies and improving Bangladesh's animal health capacity with insight and innovation offered based on best practices. Hopefully, similar training can be widely developed to other countries that may require the benefits of South-South cooperation.” In this case, the south-south cooperation between FAO ECTAD Bangladesh and Indonesia on rabies highlights the extensive impact of years of local capacity-building investments, which evolved into international technical expert assistance. Moving forward, FAO hopes that similar training continues to be reproduced in other locations around the world to reach the worldwide strategic aim of zero rabies by 2030.