To reduce the impact of zoonotic diseases on animal and human health, the federal government has launched National strategic documents for the control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs).
Speaking during the launch in Abuja, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, represented by Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health said that TDAs were among the most economically devastating diseases of livestock in the West and Central African Sub-Region.
Osinbajo pointed out that it was responsible for more than 29 Billion-Naira losses annually in the Livestock Sub-Sector, through mortality, morbidity and trade restrictions on Nigeria occasioned by the endemicity of some of these Diseases in Nigeria.
“Intensive surveillance, epidemiology and response are being conducted in the hotspot areas, to keep the rising profile of the diseases in check.
“We also work in collaboration with state veterinary services, particularly in frontline international borders. In addition, mass vaccinations against economically devastating diseases are carried out annually for millions of cattle, sheep, goats and dogs.
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“The federal government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in other MDAs, were at the forefront of coordinating the fight against diseases that afflict animals.
“We realize that despite all efforts at controlling diseases both within and along trans-human corridors, veterinarians, clinicians, animal health service providers and other important stakeholders require a roadmap that will guide them properly, to be able to control and achieve eventual eradication of these diseases.”
He informed that the development and validation of strategic documents had received wide stakeholder inputs and contributions from experts as well as key players in animal health and the livestock industry.
In his remarks, Mahmood Abubakar, the Minister of Agriculture, stated that the ministry through the department of veterinary and pest control service in collaboration with relevant stakeholder developed and validated National Strategic plans for the control and eradication of major TADs such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), African Trypanosomiasis & Tick Borne Diseases and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in cattle; Peste Des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in sheep and goats, African Swine Fever (ASF) in pigs and Newcastle disease (NCD) in chickens, among others’’.
He revealed that the government was targeting the establishment of primary animal health centers in all 774 local government areas to tackle TADs Challenges Holistically across the country.
“TADs are highly contagious diseases that have the ability to spread very rapidly across national and international boundaries.
“They have high potentials of causing great socioeconomic losses and public health consequences to our livestock farmers and pastoralists who depend on these animals as their means of livelihoods.”
