Department of Animal Husbandry & Fisheries organizes Quarterly Meeting of Nodal Officers

By 121 News

Chandigarh 17^th November:- In the wake of 'Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza' that struck the 'City Beautiful' in geese at Sukhna last December, the Department of Animal Husbandry & Fisheries took the initiative to organize the Quarterly meeting of Nodal Officers of Animal Husbandry Department of Northern states. The meeting was held at State Guest House, U.T. Chandigarh in collaboration with the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, (RDDL) Jalandhar and with the coordination of Statistics Wing of Animal Husbandry headed by Research Officer Amanjot Singh.

Capt. Karnail Singh, Director, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, who Chaired the meeting, stressed upon the formation of mechanism for providing quality health cover to the Livestock and Poultry in the region . The Animal Husbandry sector will be of utmost importance for the economy of Livestock owner and to the nation in the times to come. He emphasized upon the importance of Disease Surveillance, monitoring and diagnosis as per the latest guidelines of Govt. of India &scientific techniques available.

In the meeting Dr. Vinay Mohan, Joint Director RDDL, Jalandhar  highlighted  the occurrence of various contagious diseases in the region like Foot and Mouth disease, Brucellosis, H.S., PPR, HPAI (Bird Flu) etc. in the Northern  States.

He said that the absence of quick reporting substantially increases the incidence of these diseases and subsequently delays the diagnosis and control of the disease. According to him the basic purpose of these meetings is to strengthen the networking and coordination among different neighbouring states to control and contain the diseases among Livestock at its source of origin.

Dr. Kanwarjit Singh, Nodal Officer, Animal Husbandry, Chandigarh (UT) revealed that department is keeping a close vigil on the areas which is sensitive for HPAI virus. The instructions have been issued to all poultry farmers and backyard poultry owners to maintain bio security measures and hygienic condition in the area. The department has collected 423 samples and sent to RDDL, Jalandhar for testing of HPAI during this year. He said the department is fully prepared to control and contain any contagious disease in the Livestock & Poultry of U.T. Chandigarh.

The Nodal Officers of Animal Husbandry departments from the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, U.T. Chandigarh and experts from GADVASU Ludhiana participated in the meeting and gave their valuable inputs regarding Animal Husbandry in their respective states.