Empowering animal health professionals to contribute to rabies elimination efforts to the best of their abilities.

22 Jun 2021

An owner holds their dog while it is vaccinated against rabies.

GARC aims to always deliver up-to-date and relevant content for rabies elimination activities. This is no different for the courses on the GARC Education Platform (GEP), and ­in line with our efforts the Animal Handling and Vaccination Certificate (AVC) course has undergone extensive revisions and improvements.

Using the valuable feedback and suggestions that had been provided to us through an online survey – aimed at better understanding your desires and needs – we not only included more detailed information throughout the coursework, but also vastly improved the number and the quality of the images (e.g., photos and explanatory diagrams). These images have been developed to improve learning and knowledge retention using visual cues.

Now is the ideal opportunity for animal health professionals to become effective animal handlers and vaccinators during vaccination campaigns, thanks to our international panel of experts who assisted with the latest revisions and updates.

For those of you who are not aware of the AVC course, it is a profession-specific course that empowers animal health professionals by providing them the latest knowledge on safely and humanely vaccinating dogs and cats. To this end, the revised AVC coursework covers the following topics in great detail:

  • Understanding animal behavior and how to use the knowledge to safely approach and handle dogs and cats.
  • How to safely and effectively use the various types of animal handling equipment.
  • How to safely and correctly administer and record rabies vaccinations.
  • The different types of vaccination campaigns and special considerations that you might encounter during them.
Boys wait with their dogs on leashes at a vaccination site. GARC

If you are involved in animal vaccination campaigns and have completed the REC course, then don’t hesitate – log in and start your AVC course now. For those who are not yet REC graduates, why wait?! Becoming certified is a great way to celebrate World Rabies Day (remember to register your event) and you can be celebrated globally with our Faces Of Rabies Control and Elimination (FORCE) campaign. Let’s join together and create a world full of rabies champions so that we can reach our goal of Zero By 30! Get certified with the AVC, and End Rabies Now. 

We at GARC would like to share a special thanks to Dr. Darren Bugden and Mr. Daniel Stewart who volunteered much of their time and expertise by assisting us with reviewing and updating the coursework. With their exemplary help, the AVC course has been vastly improved and has been made more accessible to more people globally. Thank you!

If you have completed the REC course, you can sign up for the AVC on the GARC Education Platform now!

Article contributed by Dr. Andre Coetzer, Technical Lead, Rabies (GARC).