It is a boon to dairy farmers in interior villages on the border of the Krishna and Khammam districts. Most of these villages do not have health care facilities for people, let alone livestock. But thanks to a special service of the Krishna Milk Union the farmers do not have to be afraid of losing their expensive and productive milch cattle to a medical emergency.
Several animals that faced imminent death were saved by the veterinary doctors that reached their village within 30 minutes. The farmers cannot but compare it to the 108 ambulance service that saves human lives.
It is over a year since the Krishna Milk Union started the Emergency Mobile Veterinary Service. In this period the seven mobile veterinary hospitals attended to 7,161 emergency cases. Milk Union chairman Mandava Janakiramaiah said on an average the mobile hospitals made 9.5 visits to the 1,000 villages in the district during the period.
The Rs 35-lakh investment for the mobile hospitals was given to the Krishna Milk Union by philanthropists and charitable trusts.
Project Director and veterinary surgeon D Prasad said that besides attending to emergency cases the mobile hospitals attend to routine activity like administration of vaccines to milch cattle.
The veterinary service being extended to farmers by the Krishna Union was unique in the sense that the mobile hospitals attend to veterinary services like administering vaccine, de-worming and extension work, Dr Prasad said. Rattling off figures he said that in just a year the miuk Union was able to vaccinate 97,915 milch cattle, deworm 67,589 animals and conduct 950 farmer awareness camps. The numbers would increase in the second year because the services were gaining popularity by word of mouth, he said.
