Vet World Vol.17 August-2024 Article - 6
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(8): 1693-1701
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1693-1701
Spatiotemporal analysis of a population management intervention for dogs and cats in a municipality in central Mexico
2. Tequisquiapan Animal Health and Welfare Services Center, Querétaro, 76775, Mexico.
3. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics, Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas, 87274, Mexico.
4. Center for Teaching, Research and Extension in Animal Production in the Plateau, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Querétaro, 76790, Mexico.
5. School of Public Health of Mexico, National Institute of Public Health, Morelos, 62100, Mexico.
6. Directorate of Medical Benefits, Mexican Institute of Social Security, Mexico City, 06400, Mexico.
Background and Aim: The overpopulation of dogs and cats has generated socioeconomic, political, and animal welfare problems, in addition to an important public health problem, due to the risk of zoonotic diseases. This study aimed to analyze the spatiotemporal coverage of canine and feline sterilization services provided by a governmental agency in the rural and urban areas of the municipality of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tequisquiapan’s municipality, Querétaro, Mexico, from July 2019 to September 2022. The total number of sterilized dogs and cats was obtained from the monthly records of the Tequisquiapan Animal Health and Welfare Services Center (CESSBA, by its Spanish acronym). The collected information was related to the sterilized animals (species and sex) and their responsible guardians (sex and address). Access to dog and cat sterilization services was assessed using a geographic information system. Kernel density and directional ellipse tools were used to analyze the CESSBA coverage of care. Indicators were estimated to compare magnitudes and changes at the census tract level.
Results: A total of 4,489 animals were sterilized, with n = 2,611 (58%) dogs, of which 1,939 were female and 672 were male. The remaining n = 1,878 animals were cats, representing 42% of the total, with 1,257 females and 621 males. Up to 73% of the sterilized animals were owned by women. The population management of dogs and cats allowed us to increase the territorial coverage from 71.8% in 2019 to 92.3% in 2022. According to the temporal analysis (2019–2022), there was an annual upward trend in the number of sterilizations performed by CESSBA, with a rate of between 55.6 and 94.3 registered sterilizations per 100 inhabited dwellings and between 166.4 and 302.8 registered sterilizations per 1000 inhabitants.
Conclusion: The analysis of the dog and cat sterilization service coverage revealed an upward trend, consisting of an increase in accessibility and participation of responsible caregivers who resided in both urban and rural areas of Tequisquiapan. Although it was not possible to evaluate the impact of the program, the use of georeferenced data and geospatial analysis showed that it can support the control of animal overpopulation.
Keywords: cat, dog, overpopulation, public health, spatiotemporal, sterilization program.
How to cite this article: Galarde-López M, Rosales-Moreno ER, Hernández-Méndez SE, Medina-Cháirez AR, Villavicencio-López AD, Pineda-Mundo M, Núñez-Ruíz O, and Reyna-Sevilla A (2024) Spatiotemporal analysis of a population management intervention for dogs and cats in a municipality in central Mexico, Veterinary World, 17(8): 1693-1701.
Received: 2024-04-05 Accepted: 2024-07-02 Published online: 2024-08-04
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1693-1701
Copyright: Galarde-López, 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.
