ICAR-IVRI organized the Interface meet with the Veterinary Officers of Animal Husbandry Department and Subject Matter Specialists of KVKs of Andhra

Pradesh and Telangana states on 28th August, 2015 at CRIDA Campus , Hyderabad

An interface meet between the Veterinary Officers of Animal Husbandry Department, and Subject Matter Specialists of KVKs , Government of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states with Scientists of Indian Veterinary Research Institute was held on 28th August, 2015 at CRIDA Campus , Hyderabad in collaboration with the ZPD-V, Hyderabad and the State Department of Animal Husbandry, of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. A total of 136 participants including (Veterinary Officers and Subject Matter Specialists of different KVK’s from the State Animal Husbandry Department of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the scientists from ATARI, Zone-V Hyderabad and CRIDA) participated in the meet. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-CRIDA. On this occasion Director, Dr. N. Sudhakar Rao, ATARI Zone-V, Hyderabad, Dr. Viraji Rao, Director, Extension, Dr. P.V. Narsimha University, Telangana and Dr. Laxma Reddy, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Telangana were also present. Dr Srinivasa Rao, Director, CRIDA in his inaugural address threw light on the importance of the interface meet and was overwhelmed on the participation of a huge number of Veterinary specialists from the state department and KVK’s at CRIDA campus for the meeting. He urged the researchers to do more research on the issues related to climate change and their effect on animal health. The major issues highlighted by him were improvement in shelter management, feeding management and methanogenesis reduction. He emphasized that such programmes can improve the linkage of the research institutes with the state functionaries thereby enhancing the transfer of technology from the labs to the land. Dr. N Sudhakar Rao, Director, ATARI-V, Hyderabad in his remarks stated the importance of such interface meets and

congratulated the initiative of IVRI for organizing such a meet at Hyderabad. He showed immense interest in the livestock related technologies and their promotion among the field veterinarians and subject matter specialists. He mainly emphasized on more researches to increase the per animal productivity, greater emphasis on small ruminants and poultry to enhance the livelihood generation, motivating farmers to increase fodder production through Hybrid Napier, low cost hydroponics, silage making, and disease management in animals through timely advisories using ICT tools. He was very much enthusiastic about the Interface meet and reiterated that more such meets should regularly be organized to bridge the gap between technology generation and its transfer to the field level. Dr. Viraji Rao, Director, Extension, PV Narsimha University, Telangana appreciated the cause of the meeting. He emphasized that many of the technologies generated in the labs have failed to reach to the end users and one main reason is that most of the stakeholders involved in technology generation and transfer worked in isolation. He emphasized that rather than working in isolation we should try to come at single platform for generation of new technologies and raising feedback for the old ones. He emphasized that such meeting can form good platform for this cause. The technical session of the interface meet was chaired by Dr. A.K. Verma, Head Animal Nutrition Division of IVRI. The session started with presentations of Scientists from IVRI. Various presentations which included topics on “Technologies developed, patented and commercialized by IVRI” by Dr. Rupasi Tiwari, “Strategic feed supplementation for improving animal production and health” by Dr. A. K. Verma, “Emerging and reemerging diseases of livestock" by Dr. Reena Mukherjee, “Recent advances in livestock reproduction interventions” by Dr. K. Narayanaa, “Surgical intervention and related package of practices” by Dr. M. Hoque, “and “Major parasitic diseases of livestock and their control” by Dr. Hira Ram were delivered during the meet. The technical session was followed by elaborate discussions between the Veterinary Officers and SMS of KVK and the scientists about the problems in the field and their solutions.

Various queries and issues were raised by the field veterinarians of AP and Telangana, SMS of KVK and officials of ATARI, CRIDA which were solved by the IVRI scientists. The main queries were as follows:

Production / use of sexed semen at IVRI and its cost per straw, training on reproductive ultrasonography of cattle and buffalo for pregnancy diagnosis at IVRI, availability of field diagnostic tool for diagnosis of PPR, Blue tongue and FMD, suitability and safety of feeding of hotel waste to ruminants, treatment of Urolithiasis with lithotripsy, diagnosis of mixed blood protozoan diseases, whether urea treated straw and water can be fed together to the animals , whether the feeding of UMMB would be harmful since it contains cement as a binder & whether in long run it can lead to kidney stones and what is the recommended percentage of urea for the inclusion in animal feed and concentrate mixture, why there is a need for deworming not more than 80% of the animals of a herd at one time, effectiveness of herbal acaricides available in the market for external parasites control, should urea treated straw be fed to high yielders, what are the tree leaves that act as acaricides and in how much composition they should be included in the animal diet, which is the best antibiotic for curing mastitis, can crystoscope be used in the field level by the farmers and what is its cost in the market.

The main researchable and technology commercialization issues that emerged were: Development of a Proper strategy /MOU with IVRI for technology transfer with regards to animal husbandry in the states of AP and Telangana, Development of ready to use field diagnostic kits for diseases of small ruminants and poultry, Field detection tool for milk adulteration, Diagnostic kits for blood protozoan diseases, development of homeopathic drugs for various diseases and for resistant parasitic infestations, assessment of other binding material for preparing UMMB and the availability of effective herbal acaricides in the market, availability of a filed tool for pregnancy detection in animals within a month, availability of field kits for testing whether oxytocin has been used for milk let down, and the effect of such milk on the consumers , the effect of the indiscriminate use of oxytocin on animals, the state of adoption of urea treated straw in the various parts of the country and the reasons for it, incidence of thalitis in first parity animals and the reasons and control/ treatment measures, feeding of brewery waste and its effect on animal health/ development of cystic ovaries and researches to increase the fat content of the milk . The meeting ended with a satisfactory note from the field veterinarians as their queries were solved. It was decided that more such Interface meets at regular intervals may be taken up to create common platform for all the stakeholders involved in the technology generation and dissemination process.