Alhaji Mohammed Magaji, Gombe State Commissioner of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, has decried the dearth of veterinary doctors in the state.
Magaji stated this at the inauguration of livestock vaccination exercise at Gona village in Akko Local Government Area of the state.
He disclosed that there were only eight veterinary doctors and 24 superintendents working in the ministry and described the trend as “grossly inadequate”.
“The number of veterinary doctors is inadequate and cannot cater for the number of animals and veterinary facilities in the state.
“The estimated number of cattle in the state is put at between 950, 000 to 1.1 million including other species of animals”.
He further called on Gov. Inuwa Yahaya, to assist in the control of animal diseases that could be transmitted to human to ensure protection of public health.
Also speaking, Yahaya said that lack of veterinary doctors and other professionals such as teachers was worrisome.
The governor, however, said that his administration would address the dearth of professionals to ensure sustainable development in livestock sub-sector and other sectors.
On his part, Dr Musa Inuwa, the State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, noted that persistent manifestation of zoonotic diseases was one of the major challenge in livestock production.
Inuwa disclosed that cases of rabies were on the increase as many people now keep dogs for security purposes especially the locally bred species.
He lamented that most dog owners do not vaccinate their dogs against rabies due to the exorbitant prices of the vaccine and lack of unawareness.
“We are appealing to the state government to procure anti rabies vaccines to facilitate annual vaccination exercise and enforce compliance with dog control laws by the relevant security agencies in the state, ” he said. (NAN)