BEIJING (AFP) - China has launched a massive national campaign to register and inoculate dogs after a series of rabies-related deaths resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of canines, state press has said.
But with up to 150 million estimated dogs unregistered nationwide, efforts to wipe out rabies -- the biggest killer among infectious diseases in the country over the past five months -- may prove problematic.
China's health ministry recorded 2,254 cases of rabies infection in humans in the first nine months of 2006, up 26 percent over the same period last year.
At least 318 people died from the disease in September alone, as rabies ranked ahead of AIDS and Hepatitis B as the leading infectious disease in the nation, it added.
In an effort to contain the disease, and as part of the national campaign, Beijing recently began a two-month project to inoculate up to a million dogs in the city, where only 550,000 canines are currently registered.
Rising living standards in China led to a boom in dog ownership, with most dogs left unregistered and not inoculated due to high registration fees and costly rabies shots.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, only 1,000 of the city's 50,000 dogs were registered, the paper said.
Meanwhile, more than 52,000 cases of dogs biting people were reported in Shanghai in the first seven months of the year.
And in Beijing, 70,000 residents reported being bitten by dogs in the first six months of the year.
Earlier news of plans by authorities in the eastern province of Shandong to kill up to half a million dogs, following the death of 16 people from rabies in the first eight months of the year, made headlines worldwide.
One county in southwest Yunnan province also in August ordered more than 50,000 dogs killed after rabies led to the deaths of three people.