Veterinary medicine's primary roots are in agriculture, public health and comparative biology. Raising livestock productivity to enhance food security, improving human health by preventing zoonotic diseases and studying mechanisms of diseases affecting humans and other animals have been unifying themes for organized veterinary medicine with the aim of improving living standards, human-well being and animal welfare. The problem of food insecurity in some countries is partly related to the low productivity of local livestock.
The table below (adapted from FAO, 1996), in which the ratio between the percentage of world total milk (or meat) production and that of world total number of head of dairy cattle (or sheep and goats) is used as a broad measure of productivity, illustrates wide differences in productivity from dairy cattle and from sheep and goats in four regions.
Relative livestock production in four regions (AGROSTAT/FAO data, 1991-1993 averages)
|
SSA |
ASIA |
CSA |
OECD | |
|
Dairy cattle |
12.7 |
20.6 |
17.8 |
20.0 |
|
Dairy cow milk |
2.1 |
9.1 |
9.3 |
48.7 |
|
Ratio |
0.17 |
0.44 |
0.52 |
2.44 |
|
Sheep and goat stocks |
15.7 |
29.0 |
8.3 |
19.9 |
|
Sheep and goat meat |
9.3 |
29.9 |
4.2 |
27.1 |
|
Ratio |
0.59 |
1.03 |
0.51 |
1.36 |
SSA:
44 sub-Saharan African countries; ASIA: 22 Asian countries; CSA: 31 Central and South American countries; OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (see FAO, 1996, p. 48 for specific countries included in each region)
High levels of production are not synonymous with high efficiency. However, the magnitude of differences in expected production compared to the number of animals in a given region suggests that there are significant differences in production efficiency. When the value and maintenance cost of the animals are included as inputs into the system, these costs increase the denominator of the output: input equation and thus reduce efficiency, particularly if output does not rise.
It is not always recognized that there are technical limits to the scale of losses that can be avoided just as there are diminishing returns from increasing expenditures on disease prevention (McInerney, Howe and Schepers, 1992; Ott, Hillberg Seistzinger and Hueston, 1995). For example, in intensive cattle feedlots a more rational (and reduced) use of vaccines and antibiotics, leading to a reduction in total input costs, was a practical method of raising efficiency without jeopardizing animal health (Howard, 1969). Thus, improved delivery and assured access to appropriate livestock goods and services including health, husbandry, management and extension advice, are predicted to improve livestock productivity to more economic levels.
Schreuder et al. (1995) reported beneficial animal health and financial effects resulting from access to a basic animal health service in southern Afghanistan. In districts with access to basic services and remedies compared to districts without, mortality was reduced on an average of 26 percent and 43 percent in young and adult ruminants, respectively. The basic services consisted of readily available clinic-based and part-time field-based auxiliary animal health staff, vaccines, remedies, and curative treatments. The estimated annual net benefits of the programme were in the order of 500 percent of the costs involved and amounted to some US$120600 per district. Furthermore, there are many studies on the losses caused by individual diseases, groups of diseases or disease complexes and the benefits attendant on their control. Recent examples include studies on tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in Ethiopia (Jemal and Hugh-Jones (1995), (Swallow, Mulatu and Leak, 1995); and the combination of different tick control strategies with immunization against Theileria parva in Zimbabwe (Peagram et al., 1996) and Kenya (Mukhebi et al., 1995). In semi-arid areas of the Rift Valley in Kenya, Gatongi et al. (1997) demonstrated that deworming mixed sheep and goats flocks (and their offspring) prior to the-onset of rains was equal to or significantly better, in terms of performance measures, when compared to flocks dewormed during the rains. Deworming compared to controls increased performance in almost all performance measures and decreased mortality. All of the above studies document significant loss reductions and/or net financial benefits attributable to specific animal health interventions.
In recent years countries throughout the world have started to implement structural adjustment programmes to refocus government services and improve efficiency. In Africa where agriculture and livestock are so vital to the national economy in many countries, animal health and the delivery of veterinary services have been particularly important components of this process.
Against this background and following a worldwide electronic conference on the subject, an FAO Technical Consultation (held in Rome from 25 to 27 March 1997) and involving national veterinary officers from five sub-Saharan African countries, representatives of funding agencies, international organizations and expert consultants, debated, revised and approved changes to a draft document entitled Principles for rational delivery of public and private veterinary services with reference to Africa together with an annex entitled Negotiating framework for rationalizing delivery of public and private veterinary services.
This, the revised document, is now published and it is hoped that the agreed economic, professional, technical and sociological principles will be used by government officials, public and private sector veterinarians, private industry, consultants, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international development agencies as a guide and framework to change, strengthen and develop the rational delivery of veterinary services within each country as required.