Upgrade check-posts, prevent diseases: ICAR

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has recommended the upgradation of check-posts along Kerala’s border, as the first line of defence against the transmission of animal diseases from neighbouring States.

Assistant Director General of ICAR Gaya Prasad, who was in the city to participate in the two-day annual review meeting of the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Animal Disease, Monitoring and Surveillance (ADMAS), stressed the need to equip the border check-posts to carry out a battery of tests to detect animal diseases. This, he said, was important in the light of Kerala’s dependence on neighbouring States for its requirement of milk, eggs and meat and the movement of livestock and poultry across the border.

Talking to

The Hindu on the sidelines of the meeting, Dr. Prasad said random checking would not serve the purpose. “Every consignment that crosses the border should be tested for infectious and contagious diseases affecting livestock and poultry.” However, officials from the State pointed out that check-posts were manned by livestock inspectors and field officers instead of veterinary doctors required for the job.

New programme

ICAR, Dr. Prasad said, had initiated a programme to study the changing pattern of old diseases and the emergence of new ones, and their impact on human health. “We are trying to see whether climate change is a major driver of these changes,” he said.

He said the new BioSafety Level 2 laboratory coming on the campus of the Chief Disease Investigation Office at Palode near here would provide Kerala with state-of-the-art facilities to diagnose animal diseases. It would be equipped with virology, bacteriology and mycology laboratories and equipment for rabies diagnostics. The new facility is expected to become operational by the year end.