By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — Antique’s Provincial Veterinary (Pro-Vet) Office intends to hire an additional 10 vaccinators to help them effectively carry out their anti-rabies campaign.
“As of now we only have six job order vaccinators,” Antique ProVet Chief, Dr. Romeo Magdato, said in an interview Monday, noting that the vaccinators are essential so they could augment personnel hired by the municipality.
“There are towns that have only one vaccinator while the other towns have none. So our job order vaccinators will help them in their massive campaign,” he said.
Magdato said they have a budget of PHP404,650 for the vaccinators’ salary following the approval of the province’s annual budget last February 7.
“Even if the vaccinators will just be hired for three months, that would already be a big help,” he said.
Magdato said the province really needs to conduct a massive vaccination of dogs because of the three human rabies death recorded in 2018. Of the three deaths, one was from San Jose de Buenavista and two from Laua-an town.
“Our situation is alarming because of the casualties,” he said.
He said he is still waiting for the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) anti-rabies vaccines, which last year sent 4,000 vials good for the vaccination of 70 percent of the dog population or 53,719 dogs.
Antique has a total dog population of 76,741.
“I am also requesting for additional vials of vaccines from the DA-BAI because of our alarming situation,” he said.
