May 21, 2024

The Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA) says the country loses N4.5 billion annually as a result of Newcastle disease occasioned by inadequate veterinary services.

Dr Moses Arokoyo, President, NVMA, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Newcastle disease is a highly contagious disease on birds and caused by para-myxo virus.

Birds affected by this disease are fowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, partridges, guinea fowl and other wild and captive birds such as ostriches, emus and rhea.

Arokoyo said that such huge amount would have been channelled to productive ventures or developmental projects if adequate veterinary services were extended to the rural areas.

The president, who identified veterinary doctors as key to nipping the nation’s disease burden in the bud, decried poor attention accorded the profession in the country.

He said that the nation presently had a ratio of one veterinarian to 3000 or 4000 animals, describing the ratio as grossly inadequate to address the nation’s disease burden as well as nutrition security.

Arokoyo said that 75 per cent of emerging and re-emerging diseases were from animals.

According to him, the country will continue to have escalation of zonotic disease failure until it employs large number of veterinarians in remote parts of the country.

“If we want to address the problem and ensure food security as President Bola Tinubu has declared emergency on food security, then we need to change the status quo.

“We need to employ more veterinarians; we need to build capacity; empower the veterinarians to do the needful; to secure our food and our source of protein,” he said.(NAN