Anambra State government has tasked Veterinary Technicians to develop a robust working relationship with other stakeholders in veterinary practice that will improve safety of meat being consumed in the state.
Angel Network News (ANN) reports that
Anambra State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Forster Ihejiofor made the call at a meeting with Veterinary Technicians drawn from all the twenty-one Local Government Areas of the state, described the meeting as key to ensuring closer working relationships for better service delivery to secure public health.
While stressing the need for effective animal disease control and surveillance across the state, he said that the Ministry will do everything within its power to ensure that their challenges are addressed.
Ihejiofor commended the Veterinary Technicians for providing services to livestock farmers, noting that modest achievements will not be recorded without mutual cooperation.
Contributing, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ifeyinwa Uzoka, called for harmonious working relationships among Agric Heads of Departments, Veterinary Technicians and Veterinary Doctors across the local government areas to preserve public health.
Uzoka Underscored the importance of multifaceted approach to rid Abattoirs and Poultry Farms of animal diseases as well as ensuring good hygienic practices.
The Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Rose Basil-Ejidike, decried the high record cases of tuberculosis and related diseases found in cattle’s Abattoirs across the state.
Basil-Ejidike urged the Veterinary Technicians to always report such cases to Veterinary Doctors for onward transmission to the state government to ensure speedy control of diseases transmitted from cattles and chickens to humans.
Earlier, Veterinary Technicians, including Mrs Grace Ozoemena, from Awka South, Mrs Rosemary Ndive from Oyi and Mrs Joy Dim, of Orumba North, enumerated their work schedule to include daily meat inspection at abattoirs, ante mortem and post mortem monitoring of cattles to determine fitness for human consumption.
They also identified dearth of manpower, administrative bottlenecks, uncooperative attitude intimidation by butchers, lack of functional veterinary clinics, offices and equipment as some of the lingering challenges to effective veterinary services in the state.
