Comparing vaccination coverage and dog population demographics among four pilot dog rabies vaccination strategies in Uganda

Introduction: The zero by 30 initiative aims to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by 2030, for which dog vaccination is a crucial pillar. This study piloted four different dog vaccination campaign strategies in Kyegegwa, a rural district in Uganda, where rabies is endemic, and compared the vaccination coverages achieved by the strategies. Methods: Four vaccination strategies were rolled out, each in three parishes from different sub-counties: (i) static point vaccination (SP), (ii) school-based (SB, i.e., information campaigns were mainly conducted at schools and vaccination was done at the school during weekends), (iii) integrated dog with livestock vaccination (D-L), and (iv) integrated dog vaccination with human health services (D-H, One Health approach). Vaccination coverage was estimated using transect and household survey data, analyzed with a Bayesian model that estimated, besides the vaccination coverage, the dog population size and the proportion of ownerless dogs for each dog population. Results: The mean vaccination coverage achieved among the owned dog population across the three parishes for each respective strategy was 29.5% for SP strategy (the model converged in one parish only), 53.9% (range 27.4–79.5%) for SB, 66.2% (range 53.5 and 86.0%) for the D-L, and 74.5% (range 63.7 and 88.4%) for D-H. The mean proportion of ownerless dogs in the villages investigated was estimated at 0.1% for the parishes with SP strategy, 7.0% (range 0.1–20.8%) for SB strategy, 29.7% (range 0.5–88.1%) for D-L, and 7.9% (range 0.3–17.7%) for D-H strategy villages. Discussion: The strategy integrating dog vaccination with human health services outperformed the other strategies by achieving the highest mean vaccination coverage and reaching a constantly high coverage of above 60% for all the three parishes of that strategy. This demonstrates the potential of the human-animal integrated D-H vaccination strategy as an effective approach for rabies control. Sensitization strategies for dog owners also depended in the vaccination strategy performed, i.e., spread of information through health centers for the D-H strategy, which is part of the success of this strategy. The study needs to be taken as a pilot, because of limitations such as different settings between the sub-counties. Further testing across diverse settings can help assess integrated dog vaccination strategies’ consistency and scalability, providing valuable insights for developing a One Health model to strengthen future rabies elimination efforts.