By Ezra Musa
The Federal and the Kaduna State Governments have trained public, private animal health workers on disease reporting, use of National Animal Disease Information Systems (NADIS) software application.
Dr Pakashi Zakarya, Kaduna state Director of Veterinary Services, said is aimed at strengthening surveillance, data generation and disease reporting to improve collaboration, synergy between public, private animal health workers.
He said the training would help health workers know how to improve their practice at their various veterinary outfits for the good of the public..
Zakarya mentioned that the unvelling of the NADIS application will be used by animal health workers to report cases of disease outbreaks in their environment followed by prompt intervention from the state government.
In his opening remarks, Dr Columba Vakuru, Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, said the tranining was timely due to current surge in incidence of zoonotic diseases like Rabies, Avian and recently the outbreak of Anthrax in neighboring countries.
Represented by, Dr Yahaya Tanko, an official in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) encouraged diligence, proper channeling of report to reach the intended people and prompt the desired response.
He said that the training would assist the state government have a timely and accurate disease reporting format to curb and prevent outbreaks of disease.
Also speaking, Dr Amina Birma, State Epidemiology Officer in a presentation tagged “Disease reporting and animal disease control act: The Veterinarian’s responsibility” said disease reporting must be systematic and timely.
She said disease reporting is a form of coomunicating about diseases affecting animals, involving the collection, submission of data to the appropriate authorities responsible for surveillance and control.
Birma reiterate the need for veterinarians to maintain, update their knowledge in guidelines that stipulate their responsibilities for progress of the livestock sub-sector.
Dr Fatimah Yusuf, Risk Communication Officer, state Veterinary services called on private veterinary outfits to cooperate with government in the collation of disease reports throughout the state.(NAN)