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Opinion & Comment: Farm away from law
Posted by: agrilive on Feb 15, 2004 - 04:50 PM
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Who has control over the farm and the standards in place forthe health of consumable poultry and livestock? Interestingly no one
By Shahzada
Irfan Ahmed
The recent news about the spread of bird flu virus in poultry birds has had an adverse bearing on the poultry business across the country. The virus outbreak has led many to think whether there is any efficient system in place to check incidences of viral diseases in livestock or does the state machinery act only when it is too late and when most of the damage has been done?
The News on Sunday carried out a detailed study of the prevalent system of checks in place on production of livestock and found that a majority of the poultry, dairy or cattle farms in the country are ill-equipped to control the outbreak of diseases in general and hardly any private entrepreneur is trained enough to get his birds or animals vaccinated and protect them from the onslaught of viral infections. As regards jurisdiction, the provincial livestock and dairy development departments, working under the federal Ministry for Food and Livestock (MINFAL), are supposed to overlook the affairs of farms and any problems confronted by these establishments. But, unfortunately, there is no proper legislation that empowers or makes it binding on the livestock department's officials to inspect animal farms before the animals reared there are brought to the slaughter houses.
What happens in most of the cases is that the farm owners themselves approach the officials of the livestock and dairy development department to seek advice in case their stocks are hit by any viral attacks. And advice is the only thing they receive from livestock department as there are no subsidies, free vaccines or compensations available to them - irrespective of the scale of disasters hitting them.
The absence of patronization on part of the government has led to the growth of private companies who hire veterinary doctors and ask them to visit farms and introduce their medicines to prospective buyers. As is obvious, the interest of these companies and the veterinary doctors lies in spread of diseases and sale of veterinary medicine rather than their prevention.
In addition to this, the system that had existed for ages to inspect animals' health at their arrival at slaughter houses has been abolished altogether and replaced by the one introduced by town nazims. Dr Asif Rafiq, Assistant Director at the Punjab Livestock Department, tells TNS that before the introduction of district government system, doctors from livestock department were sent to Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL) on deputation and assigned the task of inspecting animals on their arrival at slaughter houses.
"As the number of veterinary doctors used to be very low -- about 4 to 5 -- to inspect thousands of goats, sheep and cattle, all they did was to watch all these animals walk on a pathway and single out the one facing any difficulty in moving. Even this is not happening nowadays where the task has been handed over to Towns who appoint their own doctors or, in some cases, non-technical staff members are asked to perform this task," Dr Asif tells TNS.
Dr Asif goes on to say that "it seems all the Towns want is hefty fees and revenues even at the cost of public health. There have been incidents where media teams have reached the slaughter houses and found that not even a single veterinary officer is present to give approvals as regards the health of the animals."
Regarding the lack of independent diagnostic facilities, Dr Asif says that such a lab is also required to suggest proper and timely preventive measures much before any human, animal or environmental infection assumes the proportions of an epidemic. What is happening at present is that all the statements coming from different quarters regarding bird flu virus are being brushed aside after being labelled as those issued by certain 'lobbies'. "It is strange that there is not even a single independent and unbiased source from where one can get authentic opinion about the exact situation," he adds.
Dr Asif Sahi, Veterinary Officer at Punjab Livestock Department, tells TNS that although his department is well-equipped to combat such outbreaks at early stages, it is a bit difficult to intervene when a disease has spread on a much larger scale. "Their is no lack of resolve on our part, the only problem is a crunch of resources. The owner of a farm is the person most concerned about the spread of diseases. It is he who approaches us or private veterinary medicine companies to cure his ailing stocks."
On the measures adopted by stakeholders to combat viral diseases, Dr Sahi says once again private vaccine producing or importing companies take the lead role. As regards the livestock department, its role is confined mostly to raising awareness among the affected lot. He says there have been reports that bird flu virus was imported by vaccine manufacturers back in 1995-96 to be used in preparation of vaccine meant to combat this disease. This entails that a remedy is available within Pakistan and it is better for the poultry farmers to get their unaffected birds properly vaccinated rather than raising a hue and cry over their losses.
This is imperative as it has been found that the current outbreak has been reported mostly from the farms where the birds were either not vaccinated or they did not receive proper doses for protection against infections.
DR KHALID MAHMOOD SHOUQ
D.V.M (U.A.F)
EDITOR
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