SALALAH: A major livestock immunisation campaign carried out by authorities across Dhofar Governorate – where livestock farming is the economic mainstay of the local population – contributed to the distribution of around 421K immunisation doses last year.
According to Eng Ahmed bin Salem al Najjar (pictured), Director of the Livestock Department at the Directorate General of Agricultural Resources, Fisheries and Water Resources in Dhofar Governorate, the immunization campaign is an important government-led initiative to safeguard the well-being of the governorate’s livestock industry.
Totalling around 773k head in the governorate, they include 333k goats, 248k cows, 174k camels and 17k lambs.
“The livestock sector is one of the most important pillars in enhancing food security to achieve self-sufficiency and provide the country’s need for red and white meat, dairy and its products from local education. The Ministry has been keen to contribute to the upgrading of this vital sector, through the exchange of experiences, promoting preventive primary care, supporting educators, applying best practises, techniques and capacity-building,” Al Najjar explained.
Speaking to the Observer, the official said the authorities in Dhofar are currently focused on building the development aspects of the livestock sector within the framework of Oman’s plans to diversify sources of national income. This is achieved by providing veterinary services to local breeders.
“The Ministry pays all attention to the care of livestock in the governorate, to ensure that it is free of all diseases and epidemics, which in turn reflects on the health and safety of society by providing and developing preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic veterinary services and epidemiological surveillance activities for epidemic and common animal diseases and combatting them through an integrated system of veterinary services, which are fixed and mobile veterinary,” he said.
Government veterinary clinics play their role in providing veterinary services, which contain all medical capabilities such as tools, equipment and devices that meet all the requirements of treatment, immunisation and various surgeries of animals. In addition to participating in immunisation campaigns, epidemiological investigation work, and veterinary counselling work in the targeted areas.
In particular, the National Immunisation Project aims to protect humans and animals from some infectious diseases, especially epidemic ones, through the use of vaccines and vaccines. Rinderpest disease is the first animal disease to be eliminated using intensive immunisation programs at the global level. The Ministry is making every effort to protect livestock through a preventive strategy aimed at imposing strong control over endemic and endemic infectious and epidemic diseases, as the National Immunisation Project is the most important pillars of this strategy, he stated.
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