India Animal Health Summit 2022

In news–The Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying has recently inaugurated the India’s first ever Animal Health Summit 2022.

About the summit-

The summit was held at National Agricultural Science Complex (NASC) Complex, New Delhi for understanding the significance of animal health towards the broader objective of the country’s food and nutrition security, rural incomes and prosperity and overall economic development.
It was organized by Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) and the Agriculture Today Group.
The two-day event hosted a plethora of panel discussions ranging from topics such as Animal Health policy initiatives to Business environment & investment opportunities in the Animal Health sector.

Role of Livestock in Indian Economy-

Livestock plays an important role in Indian economy. About 20.5 million people depend upon livestock for their livelihood.
Livestock contributed 16% to the income of small farm households as against an average of 14% for all rural households.
Livestock provides livelihood to two-third of rural communities. It also provides employment to about 8.8 % of the population in India.
Livestock sector contributes 4.11% GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP.

India is –

World’s highest livestock owner.
First in the total buffalo population in the world.
Second in the population of goats.
Second largest poultry market in the world.
Second largest producer of fish.

Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture(ICFA)-\

ICFA was created in 2015, after global studies over a period of 12 years.
It seeks to address all the concerns and needs of the food and agriculture sector and unleash the potential towards empowering the farms and farmers.
The chamber works with the objective of empowering farmers and unbind the potential of food and agriculture sector in India, via policies, trade and partnerships.

Animal diseases-

Following are some of the common animal diseases-

Anhrax, a highly infectious and fatal disease of cattle, is caused by a relatively large spore-forming rectangular shaped bacterium called Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax causes acute mortality in ruminants.
Black leg/quarter-It is an acute infectious and highly fatal, bacterial disease of cattle. Buffaloes, sheep and goats are also affected.
The foot-and-mouth disease is a highly communicable disease affecting cloven-footed animals. It is characterized by fever, formation of vesicles and blisters in the mouth, udder, teats and on the skin between the toes and above the hoofs.
Rabies is a disease of dogs, foxes, wolves, hyaenas and in some places, it is a disease of bats which feed on blood.
Bluetongue, a disease which is transmitted by midges, infects domestic and wild ruminants and also camelids, however sheep are particularly badly affected. Cattle, although infected more frequently than sheep, do not always show signs of disease.
Sheep-pox is a highly contagious disease. It causes a mortality of 20 to 50 per cent in animals below the age of 6 months, and causes damage to the wool and skin in adults. Of the pock diseases, sheep-pox ranks only second to human small-pox in virulence.
Bovine ephemeral fever is an insect-transmitted, noncontagious, viral disease of cattle and water buffalo that is seen in Africa, the middle east, Australia, and Asia.
Mastitis, or inflammation of the mammary gland, is the most common and the most expensive disease of dairy cattle throughout most of the world.
Foot rot is a common cause of lameness in cattle and occurs most frequently when cattle on pasture are forced to walk through mud to obtain water and feed. However, it may occur among cattle in paddocks as well, under apparently excellent conditions.
Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (ibr) is a highly contagious, infectious respiratory disease that is caused by bovine herpesvirus-1 (bhv-1). It can affect young and older cattle.