Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani on Friday inaugurated the lumpy skin disease vaccine at the Veterinary Research Institute Lahore (VRIL).
Secretary Livestock Punjab Masood Anwar, Director General (Research) Dr Sajjad Hussain and DG Livestock (Extension) Asif Salman Sahi were also present. Ashiq Kirmani, while addressing the meeting, appreciated the efforts made by the team of Livestock Department and Veterinary Research Institute for development of vaccine. He said that livestock sector had the significant importance in countrys economy. The government would provide loans on easy installments to 40,000 farmers in rural areas of Punjab for dairy farming through the issuance of livestock cards, he added. Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif had approved disease control and traceability programmes under the programmes, 12 lakh animals and 1.5 lakh livestock farmers would benefit, the minister added. The provincial minister maintained that the government wanted to increase production of milk and meat to increase the exports of the livestock sector. Secretary Livestock Punjab Masood Anwar said that developing a vaccine was not an easy task. We have created our own internal surveillance and counter-check system for disease surveillance, he added. He said: We are gradually improving the quality of vaccines and developing a quality assurance mechanism, adding that the Livestock Department is following its manifesto “prevention is better than cure”. Later, the agriculture minister distributed shields.
