Afe Babalola tasks farmers on efficient livestock management

Afe Babalola

Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, has charged livestock farmers on the need for effective and efficient herd management practices.

Babalola also charged veterinary practitioners whose roles he said included prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, disorder and injury in animals to raise the bar as they were necessary for healthy human society.

The ABUAD founder spoke during training workshop for veterinary doctors and laboratory technologists organised by the Council of Veterinary Doctors which held at the university.

He charged farmers interested in animal husbandry to employ the services of veterinary medicine practitioners, saying anything short of that would mean applying for licence to be bankrupt.

Babalola advised veterinary medicine practitioners to “advise farmers on proper herd management practices such as proper de-worming, vaccination, nutrition, environmental sanitation, disease prevention and control and treatment of animal illnesses”.

Speaking at the event, National President of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, VCN, Professor Garba Sharubutu, said the neglect or lukewarm attitude towards animal health could spell doom for the nation’s health sector.

Sharubutu tasked government at all levels to prioritise animal health in their policies in order to ensure a holistic health programme for the country.

He added that well-driven animal health service was required to ensure drastic reduction of diseases and sicknesses in the Nigeria society.

The VCN president, who said the seminar, was intended to broaden and update the knowledge of veterinary practitioners drawn from across the country on contemporary issues in veterinary practice, expressed hope that the event would boost animals’ health services delivery in the country if its imports were put to use by government and practitioners.

Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Dr Olusola Kolapo, who represented the governor, assured that the present administration in the state would make its veterinary sector a model for other states in Nigeria.

He said that the state government had giving priority attention to the veterinary sector, disclosing that drugs worth several millions of naira had been procured for the sector.