Vaccination alone is not enough to combat rabies. Canine population control has become imperative to curb the life-threatening viral infection in a country that is responsible for one-third of the world's human rabies cases and where stray dogs mauling women and children is not uncommon.

So, the state animal husbandry department - in association with India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN) and in collaboration with UK-based Mission Rabies and Worldwide Veterinary Service International Training Centre (WVS ITC) - on Monday launched a programme in Ranchi to train government vets on how to spay or neuter dogs.

IPAN has brought in the Mission Rabies truck - a 10-wheel Mercedes Benz truck that functions as a mobile veterinary clinic and is equipped with the latest diagnostic and surgical facilities - to eradicate the disease from India by 2030. The truck has been touring India since September 2013.

"The truck came to Ranchi last year too, but this is for the first time that government vets will be trained in the surgical procedures for canine birth control," said Praveen Ohal, north India regional manager of IPAN and founder of Hope and Animal Trust.

Ohal said they had already vaccinated 1 lakh street dogs in and around the capital city and sterilised around 50,000 in the past. "Another 30,000 more dogs need to be covered," he said, adding that the Mission Rabies truck would remain in Ranchi till September 17.

Spaying or neutering is surgical sterilisation. Spaying of females involves the removal of the entire reproductive tract (uterus and ovaries). Neutering of males is done by removing the testicles. Both procedures are performed using strict sterile techniques while the animal is under general anaesthesia.

"The programme will be helpful. The canine population is burgeoning and stray attacks are often reported in Jharkhand and elsewhere," said Dr Govind Prasad, the district animal husbandry officer.

Incidentally, a 65-year-old woman was mauled by a pack of 100 strays on a suburban beach near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala two days ago while dogs feasting on an abandoned infant was reported near RIMS in Bariatu, Ranchi, last year.

"The emphasis of our programme is on training vets attached to government pet clinics," said Vinay Bhagat, a senior trainer of WVS ITC who has come from Ooty in Tamil Nadu.

Jharkhand has state-run clinics in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Daltonganj, Hazaribagh, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Dumka and Deoghar, but training for all vets would be conducted only in the capital.