Vet World   Vol.14   March-2021  Article-10

The rabies distribution pattern on dogs using average nearest neighbor analysis approach in the Karangasem District, Bali, Indonesia, in 2019

Background and Aim: Rabies is a severe progressive encephalitis disease in dogs characterized as a zoonosis. The transmission of rabies between animals in Karangasem District, Bali is still high and continues until today; therefore, rabies in the district still actively circulating. The distribution pattern of rabies, especially in the district, is unknown. This research aimed to describe the spatial distribution of rabies in Karangasem District. The information would help in developing effective control strategies for the disease.

Materials and Methods: An observational study was carried out using 38 positive rabies cases confirmed by the direct fluorescent antibody test diagnosed at the Disease Investigation Centre of Denpasar from September 2018 to September 2019. The Global Positioning System was used to take the geographical coordinates of the places where positive rabies cases had been confirmed in Karangasem District. The ArcGIS version 10.3 (ESRI) was used to determine and analyze the distribution pattern using the average nearest neighbor (ANN) method.

Results: On the basis of the ANN analysis, the rabies distribution pattern in Karangasem District in 2019 was clustered in groups but not significant (Z-score=–1.670309 [<–1.65], p=0.094858 [<0.1]; nearest neighbor ratio=0.858364). The rabies distribution pattern in each subdistrict of Karangasem was dispersed significantly since it had z-score of more than 2.58, p-value less than 0.1 and nearest neighbor ratio of more than 1.

Conclusion: The rabies distribution in Karangasem District had a clustered pattern, although this was not significant. The grouping of rabies in Karangasem District showed a significant dispersed pattern in the subdistricts Abang, Bebandem, and Karangasem. The dispersed pattern of the rabies cases in the subdistricts was caused by unidentified stray dogs that lived in rice fields and other fields and by the whole district's hilly and mountainous topography. The ANN analysis suggested that for rabies control in Karangasem District, vaccination, elimination, and sterilization of stray dogs should be conducted in densely populated areas. Keywords: average nearest neighbor, rabies distribution pattern, rabies.

Keywords: average nearest neighbor, rabies distribution pattern, rabies.

How to cite this article: Melyantono SE, Susetya H, Widayani P, Tenaya IWM, Hartawan DHW (2021) The rabies distribution pattern on dogs using average nearest neighbor analysis approach in the Karangasem District, Bali, Indonesia, in 2019, Veterinary World, 14(3): 614-624.

Received: 04-06-2020  Accepted: 25-01-2021     Published online: 11-03-2021

Corresponding author: Heru Susetya   E-mail: herususetya@ugm.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.614-624

Copyright: Melyantono, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.