Assessing Impacting Factors of Dog Owners' Adoption of Dog Vaccination Against Rabies: A Cross-sectional Survey in Rural Areas - Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, 2021

What is already known about this topic? Rabies is fatal while preventable. More than 99% of human rabies cases were caused by dog bites worldwide. Mass dog vaccination could interrupt dog-mediated rabies if achieving and maintaining a minimum coverage rate of 70%. What does this report contribute? The results of this study show that roughly 23.7% of households owned dogs in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China but only about 19.1% of these households reported having their dogs vaccinated. Possible positive factors were injury history of dog bites, awareness of the necessity, and policy help for the costs of dog vaccination, but negative factors were negative attitude and inaccessibility. What are the implications for public health practices? Much more effort should be made to improve dog vaccination coverage in rural areas in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Well-designed free mass vaccination campaigns with more accessibility and awareness campaign are important to improve coverage.