ABSTRACT
During a mass campaign in 1987, the authors vaccinated about 500 dogs in the Pikine district. The dogs were kept for security reasons. Religion was not a limiting factor to dog ownership, but ethnic influences meant that those from Casamance (Manjaks, Diolas,. . . )--although a minority meant that among the population--bred more dogs than the Wolof majority. Most of the dog population is of local and young (average age 29 months). Males are preferred over females. The dogs belong to youths or adolescents who are without means and can neither feed the dogs correctly nor look after them when they fall sick. This individual poverty explains why the dogs are not vaccinated and why they scavenge for survival, thus contacting permanent strays, walking real reservoirs of rabies virus! The affection felt by young people for dogs makes them choice targets for transmission of the virus to man.