ILOILO City – The City Veterinary Office (CVO) is targeting to vaccinate 70 percent of the metro’s total dog population.
According city veterinarian Dr. Tomas Forteza, the goal is to reach at least 28,000 of the 40,000 total dog population.
The CVO has so far vaccinated 12,662 dogs, both from the field and walk-ins, since January this year.
A mass dog vaccination in the barangays was held in the last quarter of 2021. However, because of the lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, their schedule was often halted.
Forteza told Panay News that cats were not included in the estimated number of target for vaccination.
He is hopeful that there would be enough anti-rabies vaccines so they can finish vaccinating the target dog population by the end of 2022.
The CVO is currently using city government-purchased vaccines, unlike before – they got support from the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Agriculture (DA).
Forteza also noted that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shouldered the 70 percent of the vaccine requirement of the city before.
“I hope buligan kita nila kay nagdaku gid ang increase sang population sang ido especially since (nag-start) COVID,” said Forteza.
He emphasized the need to have buffers or reserved vaccines.
Forteza acknowledged the support of Mayor Jerry Treñas.
The CVO has at least 20 trained vaccinators and could deploy 20 teams simultaneously in various barangays daily.
For this week, Forteza said, they will prioritize bounday barangays like Hibao-an in Mandurriao and other areas considered as high-risk. An area is considered as high-risk if there were discovered cases of rabies./PN
