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By Emmanuel Adeleke
Oyo State Government in collaboration with the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, Oyo State Branch, have commenced anti-rabies vaccination campaign to curb the menace of rabies in the state.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Barrister Olasunkanmi Olaleye, disclosed this while marking the 2023 World Rabies Day in Ibadan, on Friday.
Olaleye stressed that the vaccination programme demonstrates the government’s resolve to eradicate rabies by increasing the availability and accessibility of anti-rabies vaccines in the state.
“It is important that humans are protected from diseases that are transmissible from animals, because about 70 per cent of infectious diseases affecting humans are of animal origin.
“We have also improved our surveillance and reporting systems, to monitor anthrax and every zoonotic diseases, to evaluate the impact of our collective interventions,” he said.
He added that the state would be ready to partner with any association or group to ensure residents are healthy.
Speaking, the Chairman, Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association in Oyo State, Dr. Moses Arokoyo commended the state government for being proactive in fighting against zoonotic diseases, adding that free anti-rabies vaccination of dogs was part of efforts to celebrate this year’s World Rabies Day.
Meanwhile, the Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Architect Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola, has engaged owners of companies and industrial facilities in the state on government’s stance on absolute cleanliness and environmental law compliance.
Mogbonjubola called for adequate collaboration in sustaining the environment through healthy ways of evacuation of solid, liquid, recycled and emitted wastes.