State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sultan Salahuddin Tuku has called on scientists and researchers to play an effective role in meeting the livestock sector's vaccine needs entirely from domestic production. Raising local production to 100 percent, he said, would save money and reduce dependence on imports.
He was speaking as chief guest at a meeting on Thursday afternoon in the conference room of the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) at Savar. He stressed strengthening state institutions and putting research results to use in production and in the field.
Answering journalists' questions, the state minister said that once domestic demand is met, increasing exports of livestock products is a government goal. Exports have begun, he said, including hatching eggs to Nigeria. He described the One Health approach as very important for food security and for protecting animal and human health.
Special guest Professor S M Abdul-Awal, chief coordinator for SDG affairs at the Prime Minister's Office, called for long-term, practical research projects to meet nutritional needs, raise output and cut import dependence, and urged increasing livestock production by using alternative land and resources rather than farmland.
BLRI director general Dr Shakila Faruque chaired the meeting, attended by Department of Livestock Services director general Md Shahjaman Khan. The state minister later visited BLRI's cattle and sheep research farms and the Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm at Savar.
For farmers, home-made vaccines would mean less reliance on imports, but the state minister gave no timetable for which vaccines, by when or at what cost.
Photo: A veterinary team vaccinating a cow, Spc. Landon Stephenson, U.S. Army / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Krishi Sangbad
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