Mobile Veterinary Clinic (MVC) appears as the savior of homegrown cattle and poultries at grassroots to provide emergency treatments in 360 upazilas while officials said works are underway to reach the service to 466 upazilas and nine major cities including the capital.
Mobile cars equipped with veterinary surgeons and their assistants along with necessary surgical equipment and medicine including tranquilizers appear at doorsteps of ordinary farmers or homestead cattle and poultry raisers to provide free of cost service on emergency call at hotline no 16358.
“Our duel cabin vans are almost like ambulances with life support system ready to respond to emergency calls round the clock under the MVS service,” Department of Livestock Services (DLS) Livestock director general DrEmdadulHuqTalukdar told BSS.
The Upazila Livestock Officer will sit with the veterinary Surgeon in the middle of the vehicle and a compounder or dresser next to the front driver.
According to state-run National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), the mortality rate of cattle was 3.1 percent in 2016 which came down to 1.8 percent in 2020. It estimated the poultry mortality rate to be as high as 25 percent in 2012 and 12.6 percent in 2021.
“Lack of emergency treatment facilities used to claim life of huge number of cattle and poultry until recent years but MVC has designed to prevent the phenomenon,” Talukdar said.
A nearly marginalised farmer at Gangniupazila of Meherpur, Subhash Chandra, said he currently raises four cows and few chickens.
“I have received MVC services at my doorsteps. Now we don’t need to go to upazilasadar (for veterinary services. It saves our money and removes difficulties,” he told BSS.
According to farmers in many cases the situation does not allow them reach timely to the veterinarians at the upazila level with their ailing cattle with complications related to pregnancy, delivery, uterus displacement and milk fever resulting in deaths of their precious cows, buffalos, goats or sheep.
The DLS chief said the service was introduced last year in line with a slogan -- Sheikh HasinarUpahar, PranirPashe Doctor (the gift of Sheikh Hasina, the doctor (vet)
beside the animal) with the aim to ensure vets presence near ailing cattle and poultry.
Talukdar said as part of the service DLS administers 17 types of vaccines to cattle and poultry and carryon an awareness campaign alongside other emergency treatments using the mobile vans.
According to 2022-2023 DLS statistics the number of cows is over 2.48 crore, goat is 2.69 crore and sheep is 38.27 lakh. The number of chicken is 31.93 crore and duck is 6.60 crore.
The DLS statistics suggests the stake of livestock in GDP stake 1.85 percent amounting to Taka 73,571 crore and in agriculture sector the percentage is 16.52.
Globally the stake of livestock in agriculture sector, however, is over 40 percent, much higher than that of Bangladesh.
“As the Livestock and Dairy Development Project (LDDP), a World Bank aided venture under DLS has already been set up the facilities in 360 upazilas under 61 districts at a cost of over Taka184 crore”, Chief Technical Coordinator of the project DrMd Golam Rabbani said.
Rabbani said more 115 MVCs also would be set up in the rest of the upazilas including the nine city corporation areas by 2024.
“From now on the farmers won’t suffer from animal losses. The mobile clinics will instantly treat the ill livestock just after receiving calls,” LDDP director MdAbdur Rahim said.
The LDDP officials introduced this reporter to the equipment of a MVS which include a small refrigerator, portable ultrasonography machine, electrical mastitis detector, electrical oestrus detector, surgical kit box, apparatus for manipulative delivery, postmortem, dehorning, orthopedic treatment and stomach tube.
The van is also equipped with measuring tape, small weighing scale, sub-clinical mastitis detection paddle, small steel cabinet and materials like as rope and chain, gum boot, apron and stand for saline set.
“The newly introduced facility is not only providing quick treatment to the livestock at remote areas to directly benefit farmers, but also carrying out monitoring and vaccination programme,” Manikganj Sadarupazila’s livestock officer Dr M AzizulHuq said.
