This summer, we celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of our Animal Birth Control (ABC) Centre in Kabul.

The ABC Centre allows us to deliver our Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (TVNR) programme in the city, which helps to humanely control the number of free-roaming dogs on Kabul’s streets and vaccinate them against rabies, keeping both dogs and local communities safe.

Our ABC Centre, one year on

Our teams in Kabul have been able to continue working during the coronavirus pandemic as the government deems the programmes important for public health. Sadly, with the city in lockdown, restrictions have meant the teams have been working at half their usual capacity over the summer, and we are therefore slightly behind on reaching our target of 10,000 dogs neutered within the ABC Centre’s first year (to July 2020).

Free-roaming dogs continue to be brought into the ABC Centre and our team has done a fantastic job; working within the restrictions, they have neutered over 8,500 dogs by the end of August 2020. We are now set to reach the milestone of 10,000 dogs neutered in the coming months.

Winning the fight against rabies

Since August 2017, Mayhew Afghanistan’s mass canine rabies vaccination programme has worked to eradicate rabies in the free-roaming and owned dog populations in Kabul, creating a safer and healthier environment for both dogs and local communities. We are now in our third year of this programme and are delighted to report that there have been no recorded human deaths from rabies since 2018. The number of dogs with rabies has also been reduced.

Mayhew Afghanistan’s team works across 16 districts of Kabul, aiming to vaccinate a minimum of 70% of the dog population per subdistrict (studies have shown that at least 70% of the dog population must be targeted for vaccination in order to break the chain of transmission of the rabies virus).

During lockdown, the team used their annual sight dog population survey as an opportunity to reassess the dog population. We’re pleased to report that the data shows a small reduction in the number of dogs on the streets. This data will help the team to complete the rabies vaccination programme and calculate the number of dogs to be neutered in order to continue to control the dog population in a humane way.