More research needed in veterinary science

PALAKKAD:  The Government has to spend more on research and development activities in the scientific arena, especially in veterinary sciences, if the country has to achieve the targets set by global standards, Tamil Nadu Veterinary University VC Dr R Prabhakar said here on Saturday. He was speaking after inaugurating the Kerala Veterinary Science Congress 2011 held at Hotel Sayoojyam. He said only 0.8 per cent of GDP was spent on research and development in India while 1.23 per cent of the amount was spent in China. In the developed countries it was 4.5 per cent.  Therefore the level of investment in research and development needs to be improved substantially. He also pointed out that there should be a veterinarian for every 4,000 cattle according to the norms. But, there is only one veterinarian for 45,000 cattle at present. Moreover, around 49 per cent of these veterinarians were in the non practicing areas. The vice-chancellor said that the number of research articles published by Indian veterinarians were also not encouraging. The research articles published by India veterinarians was just.25 or .45 of the total articlespublished. And most of these articles were published in journals without a good rating. The veterinarians need to undertake more research and get it published in ‘high impact’ journals, Dr Prabhakar said. The vice-chancellor pointed out that lack of time is one of the reasons for veterinarians not taking up quality research. With the passing of the Food Safety Act  stressing on quality of food, the importance of veterinarians has increased,he added. Meanwhile,retired veterinary doctor Ummachan  pointed out that buffalo rearing was one of the options available to solve the problem in the dairy sector in the state. President of the Indian Veterinary Association (IVA) R Arun presided over the meet. Among those who offered felicitations include the director of Animal Husbandary Department Dr Sreekumar and secretary of IVA Dr Sreekumar.The Dean of the Madras Veterinary College Dr Murali Manohar was also present. General secretary of the IVA Dr Easwaran welcomed the gathering and Professor of the Mannuty College Dr Vijayakumar proposed a vote of thanks.