Surveillance of animal rabies in Burkina Faso: A retrospective laboratory data from 2008 to 2012

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: Rabies causes more than 59 000 deaths each year worldwide with 95% of cases in Africa and Asia. It is endemic in most of African countries and 99% of human rabies cases are dogs mediated rabies. This study aimed to review data on animal rabies surveillance in Burkina Faso from 2008 to 2012. Results: From 2008 to 2012, 1579 animal samples were analyzed for rabies confirmation with an average of 315 samples by year. Canine rabies was most suspected with 88.6% of samples. On overall, 79% of samples were positive and the highest positive percentage was on 2012 (90%). Rabies was confirmed from dogs, cats, monkeys, shrews, rodents, horses, donkeys, and sheep but canine rabies was the most prevalent (87.8%). Regarding dogs rabies, positive samples were found among vaccinated dogs and during year 2012, 91.4 % of samples received from vaccinated dogs were positive.