Veterinary clinics nationwide make WSU’s goal to a rabies-free Africa achievable

A collaboration between a national network of veterinary hospitals and Washington State University is saving lives and reducing the threat of rabies in Africa one vaccination at a time.

For every rabies vaccine administered at 120 Vetcor veterinary clinics in the United States and Canada, $1 is donated to WSU's Rabies Free Africa program, which aims to eliminate the human deaths due to the virus across the African continent. The partnership brings WSU's total number of supporting veterinary clinics to almost 200 nationwide. Together, these partners have helped vaccinate more than 3 million dogs in Kenya and Tanzania.

"By supporting this program, local veterinarians can make a global impact and be part of the solution to end human deaths by rabies in Africa," said Guy Palmer, founding director of the Rabies Free Africa program. "Rabies is a deadly disease, but we have shown we can control it through mass dog vaccination."

In 2023, Vetcor Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Michelle Shoemaker (DVM '04) and 11 fellow Vetcor veterinarians made their first of three trips to Tanzania to see the Rabies Free Africa program in action. The impact was immediate.

"It's pretty incredible because as much as I tell our team members about Rabies Free Africa and what it does, when you actually get them over there and they get to witness it, they come back changed people," Shoemaker said. "I just can't even express how changed they are when they come back here, and how passionate they are about the mission and the cause."

In Tanzania, Vetcor veterinarians accompanied WSU teams as they visited villages, identified unvaccinated dogs and supported mass vaccination clinics where thousands of animals were vaccinated in just a few days.

You can save kids' lives if we just vaccinate the dogs - and we're saving the dogs' lives as well, all with one vaccine.

"Children walk miles to get to these vaccination clinics," Shoemaker said. "There are hundreds of children lined up with their dogs. They love their animals, and the fact that they would walk all this distance and give their time to spend an entire day to come there and be a part of that means they know the importance of it - it's saving lives."

Community Veterinary Clinic in Vero Beach, Florida, was among the first practices to support Rabies Free Africa and become a veterinary partner. In 2015, Rachel Clark and Dr. John Clark began pledging $1 to the program for every rabies vaccine they administered.

"We really wanted to give back," Rachel said. "Once you see and talk to these families, you realize this is such an important thing to be doing. You can save kids' lives if we just vaccinate the dogs - and we're saving the dogs' lives as well, all with one vaccine."

After joining forces with Rabies Free Africa, the Clarks launched their own rabies control program in John's home country of Malawi, which at the time had one of the highest rates of pediatric rabies deaths in the world. Using WSU's program as a model, they have since administered more than 50,000 vaccines in the southern African nation.

"Decreasing child and canine mortality with one, reasonably priced vaccine makes such a difference, especially in rural Africa," John said. "Now we have to find solutions to increase their distribution to those areas."

Veterinary clinics interested in joining the Rabies Free Africa mission can learn more and sign up through the program's new website.