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According to the twentieth livestock census around 95.8% of livestock population in India is concentrated in rural areas. This makes access to veterinary services, a major challenge.
To mitigate this problem, Government has introduced Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) under the revised provisions of Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH&DC) programme.
What are MVUs?
MVU are vans which are equipped with veterinarian and para-veterinarian, equipment for diagnosis, treatment and minor surgery, other basic requirements for the treatment of animals.
What are the benefits of this initiative?
Improves Longevity and productivity of Live Stocks-Farmers are often compelled to travel far from their villages whenever their animals need treatment. This also adversely impacts the longevity and the productivity of the livestock. MVUs will help to overcome this issue with its doorstep delivery model.
Zoonotic diseases-There is a drastic rise in cases of zoonotic diseases which make availability of adequate testing and treatment facilities for veterinary diseases very essential.
Anti microbial resistance-The gap created by the unavailability of adequate facilities is filled by Quacks or untrained animal health workers. This leads to inappropriate treatment and inadequate administration of antibiotics which can cause Antibiotic resistance. This is a threat to human health.
MVU model will mitigate the issue of antimicrobial resistance and is in alignment with the ‘One Health vision’ laid down by the Global Action Plan of WHO.
Rural poverty-A majority of livestock farmers have two to four animals per household.
Any improvement in the longevity and the productivity of the livestock will go a long way towards alleviating rural poverty.
Milk loss-This will help to lower the milk loss and subsequent monetary loss to the farmers.
Employment generation– Increasing adoption of MVUs across the country will lead to a surge in employment opportunities for veterinarians and assistants.
Source-This post is based on the article “Just what the doctor ordered for the livestock farmers” published in The Hindu on 18th Jan 2022.
