With activities starting in 2003 (and through vaccine donation support from MSD / Merck Animal Health), Rabies Free Africa (and its forebears) has been steadfast in its mission to implement mass dog vaccination (MDV) and in doing so demonstrate the impact that this intervention has on reducing human suffering and death from rabies.
The objective of the activities in 2003 was to create a protective cordon sanitaire around the Serengeti National Park that would shield both the wildlife within the ecosystem and the human populations living nearby from the devastating effects of rabies.
Targeting six districts — Tarime, Meatu, Bariadi, Bunda, and Busega in the west, and Loliondo in the east of the SNP — the project sought to address the unique challenges presented by different communities. In the west, agro-pastoral communities reside, and vaccinators travel to villages each year to set up temporary static-point MDV clinics. These one-day vaccination campaigns are preceded by local advertisements informing dog owners of the event. In the east, primarily inhabited by Maasai pastoralists, the strategy shifts to a more personal approach. Here, team members travel from “boma-to-boma,” walking to individual households to vaccinate dogs.
This targeted intervention, in which over 220 villages are reached and approximately 45,000 domestic dogs are vaccinated annually, is crucial in preventing the spillover of viral pathogens from domestic dogs to both wildlife and humans. Indeed, since the project’s inception, there have been no documented cases of canine rabies within the SNP. The initiative’s success extended to human health as well, with a significant reduction in human rabies cases, saving an estimated 50 to 150 lives annually. Also, with hundreds of valuable livestock in the communities typically dying from bites from rabid dogs each year, the control of rabies represented a rare win-win-win for both wildlife conservation, domestic animal and human health.
The RFA activities have since extended beyond the cordon-sanitaire and are providing rabies control to communities across the Mara region and, through donation of vaccines to other programs, in numerous other regions across Tanzania. To achieve this new technologies and delivery mechanisms, for example involving thermotolerant vaccines, locally made passive cooling devices for storing vaccines in communities (Zeepots) and facial recognition of dogs, have been employed to increase the reach of vaccination campaigns, allowing delivery to hard-to-reach communities where control was previously not achieved.
Additionally, Rabies Free Africa supports broader efforts by responding to vaccine requests from the Director of Veterinary Services and District Veterinary Officers nationwide, delivering MSD Animal Health donated vaccines to help government-led programs implement local vaccination. Rabies Free Africa also extends its support to conservation and veterinary organizations, including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Kenya’s Veterinaires Sans Frontieres, and the Mara Conservancy, all of which face significant public health and conservation challenges due to rabies outbreaks.
Rabies Free Africa stands as a testament to the power of coordinated, community-based health interventions in preserving both human and animal life in rural communities typically underserved by health services and in one of the world’s most iconic ecosystems. By overcoming logistical challenges and reducing costs, we are bringing effective rabies prevention to the most remote communities and our work continues to pave the way for a rabies-free future, ensuring safer environments for both animals and people.
