PENANG authorities are on high alert following reports of a rabies case in Kuala Sepetang in Taiping, Perak.

State health exco Dr Afif Bahardin said the state Veterinary Services Department had set up roadblocks at the Perak-Penang border to ensure dogs were not being transported into the state.

“The department has the power to seize any dog found without a licence to check for rabies.

“We are monitoring the border for any movement of dogs as a precaution,” he told a press conference at the state Veterinary Services Department office in Bukit Tengah, Seberang Prai, today.

Kuala Sepetang, where a dog that tested positive for rabies had bitten its owner’s daughter and niece, is 50km from the Penang-Perak border in Nibong Tebal.

The dog reportedly died nine days after biting the children, who have shown no sign of illness.

Perak has started a mass culling of stray dogs following the incident.

Earlier, four rabies cases, which resulted in four deaths in recent weeks, had been reported in Sarawak.

Penang was last hit by a rabies outbreak in September 2015, after which the state ordered a mass culling that saw almost 3,000 stray dogs killed.

However, only four among 240 dogs had tested positive for rabies. No human was infected with the disease.

Dr Afif said there was no order to cull dogs following the Perak incident and no new rabies case in Penang.

“Since January, we have checked a sampling of 32 dogs and the results came back negative.

“If there are no new cases recorded by September, we can declare Penang as being rabies-free,” he said, adding that all types of mammals, including cats and rodents, could be infected with the disease, but dogs were the main vector.

He asked animal welfare groups and those who regularly fed stray dogs to keep an eye out for behavioural changes in packs they were familiar with, to aid in curbing the spread of rabies.

Dr Afif said the state had an estimated 10,000 stray dogs, with 4,300 found on Penang island. The rest are owner-registered, licensed and vaccinated.

He advised dog owners to vaccinate their pets, as failing to do so prevented them from getting dog licences and could see them being fined RM5,000.

He said Penang had enough rabies vaccine in government agencies, such as the state Veterinary Services Department offices in Bukit Tengah and Jalan Gurdwara, and the Seberang Prai Municipal Council, as well as private animal clinics.

He also encouraged pet owners to get “pet passports” from the department.

The passport, a form of identification for pets that comes with a microchip injected under the animals’ skin, is now available at a discounted price of RM7. It usually costs RM35.

State Veterinary Services Department director Dr Siti Salmiyar Tahir urged the public to contact the department’s operations centre at 04-504-1047 to report animal bite cases. – July 19, 2017.