Animal Health Management in Nepal and its future strategy: Dr. Banshi Sharma* Dr. Baikuntha Parajuli** Abstract: Poultry farming is an integral part of integrated livestock farming system of Nepal. Farmers used to keep few birds in scavenging system in villages and have been keeping native chicken in backyards. Traditional method of poultry rising is quiet common in Nepal. 2007 BS revolution acted as a catalytic agent for the development of poultry in Nepal. There is a tremendous growth of poultry farming in the last five decades and has eventually leads towards economic development of rural and urban people. The demand of poultry meat has increased due to tourism and changing food habits. Meat is an important source of protein in Nepal. Poultry meat accounts 7% of total meat consumption.  Practically there is little infrastructure to facilitate the slaughter and marketing of poultry birds. Though there are some cold storage and meat marketing scheme in private sector. Egg market is tied up with feed industry.  Currently there are five hatcheries in government sector and 46 hatcheries in private sector. Similarly there are 147 feed industries in public sector and one in government sector.  The government has given the poultry sector third important priority in livestock development programme in APP. There is a growing trend of poultry keeping in the highway sides and other roadside area,  There is a tremendous potential for poultry development in future. The future strategy may include steps and policy to marketing level. Poultry farmers have better economic opportunity. It gives also employment opportunity to women ad rural people. Vision of National Veterinary Services: 1. National veterinary should be able to handle the outbreak of emerging disease with prompt diagnosis, treatment and containment of the disease on the site of emergence. 2. The rules and regulation of veterinary services should be harmonized with the guidelines of OIE. 3. Laboratory services should be strengthened. 4. Veterinary and zoonotic important diseases should be sorted out and programme disease should be prepared. 5. Vaccines of economic and zoonotic importance must be produced in country to safeguard stakeholders' need.   *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu 1 Objective of Animal Health services: 1. Early detection and control of exotic disease and publication of their containment guidelines based on scientific data. 2. Laboratory services should be available to farmers' level. 3. Laboratory will function according to SOPs. 4. Programme disease vaccine production, control of disease is primarily responsible of DAH. 5. Quality control lab, veterinary public health and transboundary animal disease programme will be updated. 6. Animal health extension services will be designed and implemented. 7. National veterinary services will have internation network with scientific community and it will help to upgrade knowledge of veterinarian and paravets under DAH. 8. Veterinary regulatory function will be monitor regularly. Present Status: In the year 2003/2004, poultry meat production was 14,333 MT (Table 2). There is a gradual increase in poultry meat production whereas duck meat production is still in standstill. Duck is basically raised for religious purposes in different places. The duck is localized in towns, roadside area , peri-urban area and swamp areas of villages. They are more concentrated in riverside and water logging areas. There has been gradual increase in poultry egg and in the year 2003/204 egg production reached 567987 in Nepal (Table No. 3). The poultry population including layers and broilers are gradually increasing. There are 23456 poultry layers in Nepal(Table no. 1). A lot of women are involved in poultry processing. There are some sorts of training programme designed for meat stall owner by ADB funded Third Livestock Development Project(TLDP). Development of infrastructure for slaughter house has been very slow. Local government should participate with private sector. The land for slaughterhouse, water supply, sewage and organic materials decomposition place should be well organized. The construction of slaughterhouse is to be provided by municipalities, private entrepreneurs and VDC in joint venture programme. The key role of maintenance should be given to private sector for making sustainable development. It is necessary to organize public awareness campaign for different types of poultry meat. With increase in poultry meat variety and is diversification in meat processing, more of raw meat tends to be processed. It can fetch more money than raw meat. The poultry eggs have been used for preparation of different types of cakes and cookies. People used to take eggs in their breakfast and lunch. Even vegetarians eat eggs. So eggs have become popular as a source of balanced food. Followings functions should be fulfilled through our laboratories.      Support the national disease control and surveillance programme. Act as national referral laboratory Conduct disease investigation and research. 2 *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu       Acquire, adopt, upgrade and disseminate new as well as different diagnostic test methodologies for animal and poultry diseases to regional labs & NAL Assist in formulating epidemic control strategies. Capacity building of veterinarians and veterinary technicians by organizing training on laboratory technology. Strengthen and coordinate regional laboratories. Disseminate information concerning animal and avian diseases to national and international organization. Collaboration with international reference laboratories and institutions. Future Potentials: Now a days people enjoy different types of poultry meats such as Mandarin chicken, chilly chicken, Thai chicken and sausages etc. They have developed habit of eating frozen meat, sausages etc. When people have exposure to outside work, they learn to eat different varieties with their changing lifestyles. It takes long time to adopt new food habit. The processed and frozen meat has local market and tourists are only consumers. The government may help by providing opportunity of exporting in neighboring countries as well as overseas. But for that there must be eradication of Salmonella in poultry birds. Therefore, zoning concept may be applied for this. In the past there had been high fluctuation of poultry meat price as a result of different rumors and diseases. However, there is a good price of egg and meat especially during festivals and social functions. As Nepal becomes member of WTO, if we met SPS standards on poultry meat and eggs, export becomes easier than expected. Tourism is one of the major foreign currencies earning industry in Nepal. When there will be more flow of tourists in future, the market of processed meat will be widened. Poultry farming can generate 50,000 employment / year, if the growth level is in present situation (field survey, Sharma, B. 2001). The future strategy: The future strategies are as follows: 1. At policy level: There must be clear cut vision about commercial poultry development and rural poultry development. There is ample opportunity of exporting eggs and meat in autonomous region of Tibet, China, Bangladesh and gulf countries. The government should take initiatives for standardization for exporting. It will create confidence in rural farmers. There is an exigent need of poultry development board in which there must be participation producers, hatchery owners, feed industrialist, medicine suppliers livestock experts, veterinarian, management experts and planners. There must be soft loan programme towards poor farmers and women group. There must be workable mechanisms of quality control of chicks, feed and medicines. There must be policy for infrastructure development such as slaughterhouse, cold storage etc. The processed product can fetch more money. 2. At organization level: Special package is organized(training in poultry keeping, poultry processing) for group leader farmers. Special focus on disease know how, treatment of poultry birds by technicians or experts would be done. Integrated approach in chick production (government and private sector) feed industry, identification poultry belt should be done. Extension programmes through DLS, NGO and local government should be carried out.   *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu 3 3. At research level: There must be participation of municipalities for management of slaughterhouse for poultry birds. The role of private sector is limited t o management and processing of poultry meat. These municipalities should develop infrastructure in suitable places. Experts of DLS and NARC will provide clean meat and sausage production know how. There must be sore sort of training on marketing component too. Table No. 1. Poultry population in Nepal: Sl. Years Poultry Ducks No. 1 1996/1997 15576525 415758 2 1997/1998 16164730 416943 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1998/1999 1999/2000 2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 17796826 1861936 19790060 22260000 22790224 421423 425160 411410 408311 391855 Layers 4886764 5181880 5420900 5667817 5998367 6622558 6643350 Duck Layers 218065 218687 220400 222401 215376 213751 183208 Table No. 1. Poultry Meat Production in MT: Sl. No. Fiscal Year Poultry Meat 1 1996/1997 10671 2 1997/1998 11400 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1998/1999 1999/2000 2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 12116 12659 13259 14756 15461 Duck Meat 291 292 294 296 287 270 237   *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu 4 Table No. 3. Poultry Disease Compilation of 2002-2006: Sl.No. Poultry Disease Outbreaks Affected Dead 1 Coccidiosis 4861 497510 30960 2 Respiratory 2989 193020 13153 Disease (unclassified) 3 IBD 741 294147 29219 4 New Castle 592 226594 22298 disease 5 Pullorum disease 364 89072 6254 (S. Pullorum Vaccinated Treated 0 493695 0 183472 651694 1042139 0 230882 55289 83437 Table No. 4. Vaccine production in Nepal. Vaccine F/Y 2060/61 F/Y 2061/62 F/Y 2062/63 F/Y 2063/64 Production PPR tissue 35,62,000 22,13,000 20,65,000 19,19,000 culture vaccine H.S. and B.Q. 4,57,000 3,94,000 5,86,000 8,58,000 Swine Fever 11,000 19,000 10,000 75,000 N.D. (M strain) 95,76,000 88,22,000 90,80,000 97,69,000 Ranikhet R2B 16,45,000 20,63,000 20,90,000 20,90,000 Gumboro Live 43,97,000 57,08,000 56,56,000 56,58,000 vaccine HS aerosol 0 25,000 25,000 25,000 vaccine HS, BQ, Anthrax 1,22,000 3.30,000 0 0 Fowl Pox 3,74,000 0 0 0 Ranikhet lasota Recommendation: 1. Commercial sector of poultry has been excluded in disease reporting system. Therefore fresh initiatives to include it must be done. 2. Disease priority has been done on back yard poultry birds only. 3. There must be research tie up with different institute regarding poultry birds. Breed of poultry birds (Parent stock) imported from foreign countries: In the last two fiscal years (F/Y 062/063 and 063/064) following breeds of poultry has been imported through DLS recommendation. Arbor Acres, Ross 308, Cobb 500, Hubbard classic, Lohmann, Lohmann brown, Cobb 100, Kashila, Marshall-R, BV 380 Brown, Lohmann broiler, Hyline, H and N Brown Nick. Main countries from where parent stocks were imported: India, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Bangladesh etc. Major poultry vaccine imports are: ND, IBD, Fowl pox, IB (live), IB+ND, Marek's disease, Reo, Salmonella (Live), EDS-76. There has been restriction of Chicken Anemia virus vaccine and avian encephalomyelitis (AE) vaccine.   *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu 5   *Senior Veterinary Officer, Central Veterinary Laboratory, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu **Programme Director, Animal Health Directorate, Tripureshwor , Kathmandu 6