NINETEEN stray dogs have been culled in Perak since a rabies case was detected in the state.

The culling is taking place in Kuala Sepetang, Taiping where a rabid dog had bitten two girls, Veterinary Services Department director-general Dr Quaza Nizamuddin Hassan Nizam said. 

“The operation and awareness campaign covers door-to-door checks where our personnel visited 275 pet owners there,” he said in a statement today.

Samples from stray dogs were also sent to Veterinary Research Institute, he said.

Perak Mentri Besar Dr Zambry Abd Kadir declared the Matang, Larut and Selama sub-districts as “rabies-infected area” effective yesterday, following the death of the dog that bit the girls. 

The girls, aged 12 and 11, recovered from their wounds without exhibiting symptoms of rabies. The dog died nine days after the attack.

It had exhibited rabies symptoms that included vomiting, loss of appetite, fever and cramps, five days after it bit the two girls.

Sarawak saw its fourth rabies death, a 5-year-old, yesterday.

The deaths are the first in Malaysia in nearly 20 years. 

The last known death from rabies in Malaysia was on January 8, 1998 when a three-year-old girl died at the Sungai Petani Hospital, Kedah.

She had been bitten by a stray dog outside her house in Padang Lembu on November 29, 1997, according to archived news reports.

Malaysia was declared rabies-free by the World Organisation for Animal Health in 2012 before an outbreak occurred in July 2015 in northeastern Peninsula states.

Over a period of three months, Perlis recorded 22 cases of humans infected with rabies, while Kedah and Penang recorded 18 and four cases respectively, according to the Health Department.

No deaths were recorded as the patients were treated before symptoms appeared. The outbreak ended in mid-September 2015.

The state governments lifted orders for mass culling of dogs early October after 4,500 dogs were killed. Alongside the culling, over 8,150 dogs were vaccinated.

In Sarawak, no dogs have been culled this far. Since April 1, the Sarawak Veterinary Services Department have vaccinated 2,205 dogs, 5,424 cats and 26 other animals. – July 18, 2017.