Vet Council: Funding Woes, Manpower Gaps Stall Nigeria's Rabies Fight

The Veterinary Council of Nigeria has identified several critical challenges impeding the country's efforts to eradicate rabies. These include insufficient funding, poor collaboration, a severe shortage of skilled personnel, and inadequate facilities and vaccines. Dr. Oladokun Fadipe, the Council's Acting Registrar, conveyed these concerns during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, an event coinciding with the annual commemoration of World Rabies Day. Observed globally on September 28, World Rabies Day aims to raise awareness about rabies prevention and highlight progress in combating the disease, with the 2026 theme being “Stronger Together”.

Fadipe stressed the importance of the government allocating substantial resources to mobilize staff for a nationwide mass dog vaccination campaign. He explained that once such a comprehensive vaccination drive is successfully implemented within a year, it would then become the responsibility of dog owners to ensure their animals receive routine vaccinations, with penalties for those who fail to comply.

"We need to get to that point where there are resources to mobilise people to go round and ensure that all dogs are vaccinated," Dr. Fadipe stated. "We can then begin to impose sanctions or penalties on any dog owner who fails to comply."

The Acting Registrar also expressed concern over the scarcity of skilled personnel and appropriate facilities to treat individuals who have been bitten by rabid dogs. He revealed that Nigeria has only 12,700 registered veterinarians, while the number of registered para-veterinarians is less than 10,000, falling significantly short of the estimated requirement of 50,000. Fadipe noted that only a small fraction of these veterinarians serve in government agencies, with the majority operating in the private sector or residing outside the country, a situation he described as grossly insufficient to meet the 2030 rabies eradication target.

"If government can recruit more, it will help us, because even when you declare free vaccination, where are the hands to do it?" he queried. Fadipe suggested, "Although in the interim we can do a Public-Private Partnership where we involve private practitioners, if we depend only on government staff to carry out this assignment, we do not have enough manpower. Government should bring in more manpower to assist. Of course, facilities are not there too. We do not have enough vaccines. The National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Vom, in charge of vaccine production, does not have the capacity to produce enough that can go round; hence, we import vaccines."

He consequently urged for the recruitment of additional personnel, the modernization of existing facilities, and a significant boost in the production capacity of the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) to ensure a sufficient supply of vaccines for national demand.

Fadipe further appealed to all relevant stakeholders to abandon isolated approaches and instead embrace robust collaboration. He emphasized that the commemoration of World Rabies Day should be seen as a period for collective effort rather than competition, aligning perfectly with the 2026 theme of "Stronger Together."

"We have so many people whose hands are on deck, from the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, especially the Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, among others," he noted. "This is a season of collaboration. Let there be responsible dog ownership. Let dog owners present their dogs for free vaccination when there is such an opportunity, which is one way we can be sure of 100 per cent eradication; it will elude us. Let us continue this media advocacy, sensitise people and see that in no distant time we can eradicate rabies and keep preventing it going forward."