Dog ownership, demographics, owners’ knowledge of rabies, and factors associated with canine rabies vaccination in urban and rural areas of Dedougou, Burkina Faso

Abstract

Rabies is a prioritized zoonotic disease in Burkina Faso and is known as a major zoonotic disease with high public health importance. This investigation was conducted to assess community knowledge, dog ecology and demographics, and factors associated with dog vaccination against rabies in the urban and rural areas of Dedougou. Three hundred and sixteen (316) dog-owning households were surveyed in the rural and urban areas of Dedougou using a semi-structured questionnaire. Among participants, 55.7% lived in rural area, and 59.8% were farmers. Only 34.5% of participants had satisfactory knowledge of rabies. About 22% were aware of the required age of dogs’ primo vaccination against rabies while 55.7% knew the frequency of booster vaccination. Participants living in households with less than five persons were significantly more likely to be aware of rabies than those living in households with the higher number of persons (P<0.05). Participants who were aware of rabies were more likely to vaccinate their dogs compared to those who were not aware of rabies (P<0.05). In total, 2930 persons were recorded in visited households with 60.6% from rural area, and an average household size of 9.27 persons. Three hundred and thirty seven dogs were found in surveyed households’ and 54.9% were from rural area. In overall, a dog per human ratio of 1:8.7 was determinated. Regarding dog ownership practices, the majority of respondents reported that they provided their dogs with water (84.5%) and food (84.8%). This research reported supplementary data on dog ecology and rabies, which could be useful for rabies control planning in Burkina Faso.

Keywords

• Burkina faso
• Zoonosis
• Dog ownership – public health concern - rabies – vaccination