INDIA PROVIDES A MODEL FOR GLOBAL IMPROVEMENT IN ANIMAL HEALTH, WRITES NEIL SARGISON

THE UK&’s Chief Scientist has said that as far as global food production is concerned, the world is facing a “perfect storm”. This threat combines the ever-growing problems of a global reduction in available productive land, regional scarcities of replenishable water and the failure of drugs and chemicals to control diseases. This warning cannot be ignored. The key to averting catastrophe is in planning ahead, sharing knowledge and in recognising that to do nothing is not an option.
We cannot afford to be complacent. Efficient livestock systems are essential to meet the escalating needs of the world&’s burgeoning population, so any threat to food production has to be taken seriously. As with all forms of agriculture, livestock production must be economically, environmentally and socially viable. While there are many reasons for the current unsustainability of livestock production, improving animal health affords the greatest potential for a rapid achievement of better production efficiency. In fact, improved animal health addresses the issue of food security, has obvious socio-economic benefits and improves human health standards through the control of zoonotic diseases (those that can transfer between humans and animals), in accordance with the broad principles of “one health”.
The situation in India — with a population of about 1.2 billion, cultural and economic dependence on livestock production, a large productive land area and an enthusiastic and receptive veterinary profession — provides a model for global improvement in animal health to meet the requirements for sustainable agriculture.
Improvements in animal health must be founded on robust scientific principles in keeping with the principles of “planned animal health”. The University of Edinburgh has an emphasis on animal productivity using precisely that maxim, as well as a focus on production animal genetics, infection and immunity and epidemiology with a strong research focus on the principal constraints, including looking at the issues created by drug resistance. The long-term application of this state-of-the-art epidemiological and post-genomic research will prove to be important in securing efficient and sustainable global animal health management.
In the meantime, everything must be done to ensure that these groundbreaking research programmes and technologies can operate in optimum conditions. The key to this is to address more fundamental veterinary clinical principles. Quite simply, genetic improvements and sustainable disease control programmes can only succeed if animals are first kept alive through good nutrition and basic health management. The focus of veterinary medicine worldwide needs to move away from the needs of individual animals seen out of context at treatment centres or clinics, towards health management of groups of animals within the overall context of their environment, management and contemporary agriculture. There is a need to integrate this approach with cutting-edge scientific research to address the challenges presented by the so-called “perfect storm”.
In partnership with our Indian colleagues, we have the ability to recognise that various scenarios, such as the high rate of calf mortality in Indian buffalo herds, are preventable and can be addressed by identifying the underlying primary causes, rather than deferring to dogma. We are also conversant with the arguments as to why buffalo survival is not necessarily a high priority within the context of the way in which they are currently farmed in India. However, when considering global food production, this situation is inefficient and, I believe, untenable.
The University of Edinburgh-India collaboration, combining expertise in planned animal health with local knowledge of animal husbandry, infectious diseases and socio-economic factors, to the benefit of global food security aims to minimise the impact of the challenges to global food production.

THE WRITER IS HEAD OF THE FARM ANIMAL SECTION, ROYAL (DICK) SCHOOL OF VETERINARY STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND. HE ATTENDED A RECENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN BANGALORE AND CAN BE CONTACTED AT neil.sargison@ed.ac.uk