Surveillance of Animal Rabies in Burkina Faso: A Retrospective Laboratory Data from 2008 to 2012

Abstract

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 dog mediated. This study aimed to review data on animal rabies surveillance and factors associated with dogs’ rabies in Burkina Faso from 2008 to 2012. Data on submitted samples for analysis using Fluorescent Anti-body Test and confirmed cases in animals were obtained from the National Livestock Laboratory. These data were associated with the geographical regions where the samples originated, species and years. For dogs, data on age, sex, dogs’ ownership and vaccination status have also been collected. From 2008 to 2012, 1352 animal samples were analyzed for rabies confirmation with an average of 315 samples by year. Canine rabies was most suspected with 90% of positive samples. On overall, 77.3% of samples were positive and the highest positive percentage was found during 2012 (89.8%). Rabies was confirmed in donkeys (100%), dogs (78.2%), cats (77.3%), monkeys (53.8%), shrews (50%), and rodents (35.3%). Regarding dog’s rabies, positive samples were also found among vaccinated dogs and the highest positive percentage (91%) was in 2012.These findings demonstrate that rabies is widely distributed in animal species in Burkina Faso and dogs’ vaccination against rabies must be followed seriously as possible vaccine fail occurs after vaccination.