Ethno-veterinary medicine becomes sustainable animal health intervention

For the small and marginal dairy farmers in the country, alternative approaches such as ethno-veterinary medicines (EVM) for the management of common animal ailments would offer a cost-effective intervention making it more effective.

Inaugurating the Ethno-Veterinary Preparation (EVP) supply chain facility of Sabarkantha Milk Union (SABAR), Dilip Rath, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said the healthcare management of animals is important, particularly when they are maintained in small herds.

“Majority of dairy farmers in our country are small or marginal who find it difficult to afford a veterinarian or bear the treatment charges when their animals fall sick. Adoption of alternative approach for the management of common ailments of animals especially through ethno-veterinary medicine would offer a cost-effective and easy option to the farmers with ingredients usually available locally,” he said.

NDDB is collaborating with SABAR as the incubation centre to test the concepts related to mastitis control and propagation of EVM since 2014. According to INAPH data, around 22 per cent of the cases were related to the udder ailments. Due to NDDB’s intervention sub-clinical mastitis reduced from 55 per cent to 20 per cent and somatic cell count (SCC) and total plate count also declined.

NDDB plans to extensively propagate the EVM concept by field training and motivating personnel involved in animal husbandry.

SABAR is the only union in the country to have started a facility for ready-to-use EVM preparations for various ailments. The union is expanding the reach to cover to all district cooperative societies to reduce the treatment costs and use of drugs and antibiotics.

EVM is now being implemented as Mastitis Control Popularization Project (MCPP) in around 25 milk unions covering about 1500 dairy cooperative societies (DCS) across nine States benefiting over one lakh farmers. NDDB has been propagating the use of EVM for more than 14 ailments including mastitis with a high success rate (~80% and above) wherever it has been carried out.

Recognised by IDF

This concept is also getting recognised by the International Dairy Federation (IDF) and IDA as a sustainable model for the developing world.

Further, the use of EVM for management of dairy animal diseases has become more significant in the current scenario as food safety regulator — FSSAI is coming out with stringent regulation on permissible limit of antibiotic/drug residues in milk and milk products. Use of EVM will result in reduced use of drugs and antibiotics and thereby help decrease the incidence of antimicrobial resistance.