Under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif Livestock has become a growing sector as its contribution to the national economy is rising continuously. Apart from this livestock is an active employer of thousands of landless poor, subsistence and semi- subsistence small farmer families.
Pakistan’s livestock population, out of which a majority is in Punjab, is one of the largest in the world. Shehbaz Sharif has kept the momentum of progress.
Demand for major livestock commodities (milk, eggs, meat) has increased rapidly, leading to unprecedented growth in the livestock sector. Today the livestock sector constitutes one of the major engines of agricultural growth in the country and continues to play a central role in rural poverty reduction.
Lahore, Sep. 23 (TNS): Shahbaz Sharif led Punjab government has worked day and night to bring green revolution and now it has brought white revolution by boosting agriculture and dairy/livestock sectors.
Livestock plays an important role for the uplift of rural economy by contributing 11.8% in national GDP and 55.5% in the agriculture sector’s share of GDP while agriculture Sector contributes 21% of GDP of Pakistan, which consumes 46% of direct labor force, coming from 67% of the population.
Out of Agriculture, the share of livestock sector is 56%. However, the head count involved in both sectors is same as livestock and agriculture supplement each other in the rural landscape.
Livestock’s value exceeds the combined value of all the major and minor crops by about 6.1%.
The share of livestock products in the generation of foreign exchange is about 13%. More significantly, livestock is an integral part (30-40%) of livelihood of about 30 to 35 million rural farmers.
Presently, the reported gross value addition of livestock stands at PKR 1,172 billion, whereas livestock share in export is 8.5%.
Under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif Livestock has become a rising sector as its contribution to the national economy is growing continuously. Apart from this livestock is an active employer of thousands of landless poor, subsistence and semi- subsistence small farmer families.
Livestock and its products are directly linked to the economy of small and medium-sized farmers. It is a major source of active food and adds significantly to the health, nutrition, and wellbeing of rural as well as urban consumers.
Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Punjab is rendering different services to the Livestock sector of the province through its infrastructure network in the field.
Pakistan’s livestock population, out of which a majority is in Punjab, is one of the largest in the world. Small ruminants and other animals form part of rural households’ food basket provide a cushion in case of crop failures and can be sold to meet emergency expenditures.
Historically it has been dominated by small holders, with 88% of livestock owners possessing six animals or less and these small holders are scattered throughout Punjab in far flung areas.
Veterinary service is considered as a national and global public good and thus has been the responsibility of government. Traditional mission of the veterinary service has been to protect domestic animals in the area.
The official veterinary service has the following objectives:
- Control of animal diseases with ability to rapidly detect and diagnose
- Minimize and control the risk along the food chain (veterinary public health) including zoonosis and food borne diseases
- Welfare of animals
Keeping in view the objectives of veterinary service and provision of quality service at the door step of farmer, Punjab Government under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif has started Mobile Veterinary Services in Punjab.
Government has provided motorbikes to all veterinary officers and veterinary assistants all over the Punjab. Motorbikes made it easy to reach the farmer in emergency condition.
Apart from this Mobile Veterinary Dispensaries in all Tehsil Head Quarter hospitals have been provided to for quality service delivery at farmer’s door step.
These MVDs are well equipped and ample quantity of quality medicines has been provided.
These MVDs cover all villages of tehsil on a scheduled tour program .Staff of MVDs have been provided extensive training.
The Mobile veterinary officers have been provided with Android mobile sets to Geo tag their field activities.
MVD platform have enormously raised the quality veterinary service. The project has improved the health status of the animals resulting in increased milk and meat production.
MVDs have minimized the risk along the food chain by improved control of zoonotic and food-borne diseases; in short MVDs are striving hard to achieve objectives of quality veterinary services.
Mass Vaccination Campaign
After the approval of Government of Punjab, Livestock Department under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif has started a paradigm shift in Livestock sector governance from curative regime, presently in vogue, to preventive regime. Keeping in view the economic losses of diseases which are more pronounced in the livestock sector health governance, Shehbaz Sharif decided to launch Mass Vaccination Campaign against diseases like HS, FMD, BQ, in large animals and against ETV, CCPV, PPR In small animals and against ND in rural poultry and fancy birds.
A mass vaccination campaign is the vaccination of susceptible animals over a wide geographical area in the face of an outbreak of an infectious disease. The main objective of Mass vaccination campaign is to reduce the risk of disease spreading in areas in large populations of Livestock and Poultry. Livestock Department has carried out six Successful Mass Vaccination Campaigns .In these campaigns millions of buffaloes, cattle, sheep, goats, rural poultry and fancy birds have been vaccinated.
A successful vaccination campaign requires sero-monitoring as an integral component to provide quality assurance of vaccination efficacy and so that the results are used to generate remedial action; to fulfill this requirement disease surveillance and diagnostics capacity of staff has been uplifted to conduct permanent surveillance and forecasting of diseases. As a result of these mass vaccination campaigns the incidence of infectious diseases has decreased considerably.
Disease Surveillance
Importance of livestock is beyond the shadow of any doubt as its activities comprise protection and care of animals which provide food, fiber and labor. Punjab government under the guidance of Shehbaz Sharif established Livestock Laboratories which serve as a platform to conduct research in different areas which affect animal and their by-products.
Currently, 36 laboratories are running in all over the Punjab in addition to a Lahore based Provincial Diagnostic Laboratory.
In the contemporary era of science and technologies, role of science based diagnosis of diseases cannot be ignored. In addition to this the Central Laboratory administers all the district based laboratories. Furthermore, Camel project is underway to address the health and growth issues of camels as they contribute to the milk and meat of the country.
Under the supervision of Disease Diagnostic Laboratories L&DD Punjab through a project “PROPHYLACTIC MEASURES AND SERO-SURVEILLANCE OF CAMELS AND CAMEL MILK PROCESSING IN PUNJAB” the impact of parasitism, sub-clinical mastitis and brucellosis on camel populations is estimated. All these services are recorded on 9211 Virtual Governance System.
Milk
Milk is a complete food. It helps in strengthening the immune system. After paying due heed to the ingredients of milk, one cannot deny the importance of milk in mental cum physical growth of human being.
It is main source of nutrition for infants in early period of life when they are unable to digest food. But the dilemma with present time is that pure milk is hardly found anywhere. A common term use for impure milk is adulteration.
Adulteration reduces the quality of milk and even makes it hazardous. Adulterants like urea, formalin, banaspati, detergents, hydrogen per oxide, hydrogen sulphate, baking powder, caustic soda, whey powder, corn flour, starch, calcium carbonate as well as water may be added to the milk.
Most of these adulterants are poisonous and hazardous for human health. As it is an admitted fact that milk is being very easily adulterated throughout the world, following are the main reasons; Demand Supply Gap, Role of Milk Man, Perishable nature of milk, Lack of detection mechanism and Evil economic design of Middle Man are the main reasons for this adulteration.
Although economic objectives pave way for this evil practice but the shortage of supply of milk cannot be refuted.
Due to its immense importance as a source of nutrition the department has launched an awareness campaign in schools and colleges of all major cities of Punjab.
The objectives of this campaign was to inform the people about importance of pure milk in life and the chain by which it reached their homes i.e. from farm to table.
Alleviation of Poverty by Distribution of Animals among poorest of Women in Punjab
Poverty Alleviation scheme of the Punjab government under the guidance of Shehbaz Sharif includes provision of heifers, sheep/ goats and rural poultry to poor women in Punjab to improve the economic conditions of village women through involvement in productive livestock activities in culturally acceptable environment.
- To improve the income status of village women through involvement in productive economic activities in culturally acceptable environment.
- To create awareness about improved animal husbandry and livestock practices among rural women for profitable farming.
- To promote sustainable livestock development, gender involvement, employment generation, the beneficiaries will maintain all production and vaccination record of animals.
All the Videos for Animal Distribution can be viewed at Livestock Punjab (Livestock Punjab) Youtube Channel.
Save the Calf / Calf Fattening Scheme
Punjab’s livestock resources hold considerable potential for increasing the production of meat. It has been estimated that about 6-7 million buffalo/cattle male calves are available for fattening in the Punjab province. Before Shehbaz Sharif majority of these calves were sent to slaughter at 1-3 weeks of age. Some calves were raised to 60-80 kg on extremely poor and unbalanced diets.
But now under the guidance of Shehbaz Sharif these calves are saved and raised on balanced fattening diets based on crop residues and agro-industrial by-products to gain live-weight of 250-300 kg, it is estimated that total beef production has been doubled. Experiences so far, suggest that success of meat production/feedlot fattening is possible.
Though livestock production was very fragmented and most farm units were small and only 10 percent of the farms in the Punjab held from 10 to 20 buffalo /cows and 5 percent over 20 heads each. Such units are now run by capable and business oriented farmers who seem to be open to change and eager to adopt improved production practices as these prove profitable. When sufficient subsidy and workable production programs were given, their response was quick and positive.
The objectives of the project were envisaged through a triggering mechanism to supply calf ration as under:
- To save the infant calves for enhancing beef production in Punjab
- To motivate livestock farmers for feed lot fattening
- To improve capacity of technical staff & farmers regarding the management of beef farming system.
Crackdown against Spurious Khalbanola
Rotten cake, infected Roti Tukra and corn with high mycotoxin level can cause disease in animals and as a result the milk production decreases. These can even lead to death of the infected animal. For the better health and high milk production, animals should be provided with surplus green fodder and aflatoxin free Wanda from a certified company.
As a consequence the department not only initiated this campaign to launch a drive against individuals or companies producing or selling this hazardous material. The Government of Punjab has also passed legislation in this regard “The Punjab Animal Feed Stuff and Compound Feed Act 2016” to regulate this sector of animal feed in the province.
Deworming Campaign
This single intervention has the tremendous potential to increase the productivity and reduce the incidence of disease. The Government under the guidance of Shehbaz Sharif has established standard working protocols against the Endo and Ecto-Parasites with complete prevalence mapping because according to careful estimate, 42% animals are affected by different types of worms. The worms adversely affect efficiency of the animals and cause a financial loss to their owners. That is why it was important to overcome the worms to improve production of the animals. The worms in animals are more in those areas where animals graze more, than in those areas where animals graze less. There are more worms in those animals which eat dried feed than in those which eat green fodder. Similarly, more worms are found in younger animals than in older ones. One important reason of lesser rate of growth in younger animals in Pakistan was the presence of worms in them.
Kinds of adverse effects of Parasitic Infestation:
The adverse effects of infestation can be divided into two types.
- Hidden 2. Apparent
Hidden diseases included: Decrease in milk production, Enlargement of the belly and Loss of weight. No pregnancy etc. is the hidden effects of worms. These adverse effects caused financial losses to the owners of the animals. Apparent diseases included: Thinness of skin, Anaemia, Scars and swellings on the body, Cough, Constipation Diarrhea etc. which showed the apparent adverse effects of the worms.
Economic Benefits of De -Worming: An increase in milk production of the animal gives the farmer a benefit of at least Rs 4000 in a year. With regular de-worming of calves, their daily growth is enhanced 100 to 400 gms more than the normal; which gives minimum Rs 13,500 benefit to the farmer in one year. Regular de-worming keep the animals healthy and their feed proves useful.
Types of Worms: Worms are usually of two types: 1. Internal parasites (worms) 2. External parasites
Internal Parasites (Worms): According to an estimate, the mortality rate among the younger animals of 6 months to one year old due to internal worms is 25-30%. Internal worms include round worms, stomach worms, lung worms, liver flukes and intestinal worms.
External Parasites: These parasites are found on external skin. They are mostly blood-sucking parasites Control of Parasites: Keep animals’ sheds clean. There should not be any holes/cracks in the walls or roofs of the sheds, where these external parasites can hide or lay eggs. Spread limestone powder in sheds from time to time. Spray sheds with insecticides after removing the animals from their sheds. In case of ticks, get it treated by a veterinary doctor. Protect chopped fodder from dust and dirt and give the animals clean feed. De- worm animals regularly. Give a variety of de-worming medicines so that the worms cannot build immunity against any medicine. Whitewash the water troughs of the animals with limestone powder for protection against microbes and they cause spread of fatal diseases in the animals. They include lice, ticks, flies and mosquitoes, etc.
Under the guidance of Shehbaz Sharif De-Worming was done to the Herds of Cows and Buffaloes: The production of milk increased by ½ to 1 litre of milk when lactating animals were de-wormed. The effects of the parasites were different on cows, buffaloes, bulls and on younger animals. Therefore, the methods of their treatment were also different. De-worming medicines were administered at least thrice a year to the adult and four times to the younger animals. Keeping in view guidance of Shehbaz Sharif Livestock Department started 100 % deworming campaign in all large and small animals including equines and camels first time in history. Ivermactin campaign against ecto and endo parasite improved the health status of all the animals resulting in improved production.
