STRAY ANIMALS AND
THEIR ROLES IN
PUBLIC HEALTH
Stray animals have always been living with humans for a long time. It is known that whenever there are human populations, stray populations will follow; be it incidental or humans do affect strays to come and live with them.
By: Azzahra Maulidina, BVM
There are different categories of stray animals: those animals who have lived their whole life as strays, and those who were ever owned but are abandoned now (AWBI 2014).
It is estimated that there were almost 200 million or more dogs that became strays between 2009 and 2010 (Patti 2011).
The exact number of stray animals in a community is difficult to obtain due to nonstop reproductive cycles, to which they keep on reproducing offspring.
Some of the reasons why humans abandon their pets:
a. Pet owners are bored of them and thus their pets become unwanted;
b. Pet owners are busy and unable to take care of their pets;
c. Higher pricing on pet supplies leaves owners who have tight budgets to abandon them (Christine et al 2016).
The existence of strays divides the community into two sides: one that agrees with their existence and one that disagrees or even despises their existence. This causes long-term debate in the community as to their willingness to care for the strays. Stray animals mostly live independently with uncontrollable reproduction which overpopulate the environment. Stray animals are also known to cause nuisance and they prey on livestock and poultry farms as a food source (Lyu 2015, Abdulkarim et al 2021).
These behaviors affect people’s judgment and thus create disagreement in the community. Abandonment of these animals hugely affects their welfare status, which increases risks of environmental and public health problems significantly. Abandoned animals are vulnerable to a lot of situations: starvation, road accidents, infectious diseases, and even death (Jessup 2004). These conditions directly affect public health and therefore need to be evaluated properly.
Stray animals pose a main concern in the public health aspect. Their interaction with people, especially children, creates an infection passage between animals and humans.
The nature of these animals is unknown, thus exposing the risks of children and adults getting diseases from bites and scratches of infected animals. This common incidence possibly transmits zoonotic disease to the community (Slater 2001).
Chou et al (2014)
found zoonotic pathogens in the stray dog
population of Central Taiwan, such as Toxoplasma
gondii, Dirofilaria immitis, Borrelia burgdorferi,
Coxiella burnetii, and Leptospira spp.
Some zoonotic parasites found in the stray cat population include Toxoplasma gondii, Leishmania infantum, Toxocara cati, and Dipylidium caninum; most of which are neglected zoonotic parasites (Duarte et al 2010). Other zoonotic diseases often related to stray animal populations are rabies, bartonellosis, tularemia, and murine typhus (Taetzsch et al 2018). Rabies itself is a deadly disease that needs proper attention as countries, especially developing countries, have high incidence numbers and it requires 70% of the total dog population to be vaccinated. This measure is necessary to prevent rabies on at least 96.5% of occasions (Coleman and Dye 1996).
Some public health measures that can be applied to prevent stray populations from infecting humans and livestock include public awareness of animal welfare in stray populations and zoonotic diseases, environmental hygiene protocols, controlling pathogen transmission like deworming and vaccination, and population control (Abdulkarim et al 2021). Some population control measures are education and legislation for responsible ownership within the local community including education on sterilization; registration and identification of owned dogs with permanent markings such as microchips or using visible identification like collars; reproductive control commonly with surgical sterilization and separation of female dogs during estrus from unsterilised males; capture and return, rehoming, or release; strict regulation for dog breeders to reduce numbers of unwanted pets; and euthanasia as the last resort (WOAH 2018).
Source :
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