Operation Flood; When we will be inundated?

https://www.facebook.com/notes/drjassar-aftab/operation-flood-when-we-will-be-inundated/985755254798140?pnref=lhc

“They are going to have an atomic bomb”, said Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan to Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. ZAB immediately arranged for him to meet Mr. Ayub Khan, the then President of Pakistan, who declined any offer by Munir. When Munir reported this to Bhutto he replied “Don’t worry, our turn will come”. However, after that incident, Pakistan ended up being sole nuclear power in Muslim world. Indians didn’t stop there, they ended up landing on Mars. But today unfortunately, there are no Munirs or ZABs alive to pursue that challenge.

Amidst all those miracles performed by our neighbors, one very remarkable achievement which is always neglected was in the livestock sector i.e their White Revolution. Within two decades, that revolution brought India at the top of all the milk producers in the whole world, making her self-sufficient and giving her a massive economic uplift. Project Amul of Verghese Kurien, idealized by Lal Bahadur Shastri, bore fruits of self-sufficiency in India regarding milk production.

The story actually started from H.M Dalaya inventing technique to obtain skim milk and condensed milk from buffalo milk instead of cow. Foreign qualified engineer, Verghese, seeing it as an opportunity based his own company “Amul” and thus making of co-operative societies of farmers in Gujarat, gave kick start to the revolution in India actually, naming it as “Project Anand”. Shastri on seeing this project successfully running and raising the living standard of local farming community, appointed the master mind “Milker man of India” as Chairman NDDP. Within 10-15 years when Iran was facing political revolution, India was going to hatch it’s agriculture based white revolution.

Pakistanis always remained in the illusion of “Looking towards West” policy and failed to comprehend that how her very own neighbor, utilizing all the national resources and foreign funding, has stepped far ahead to her in every field of life. The time we were busy to find the bases of every turmoil as some ‘Jewish Conspiracy’ every Indian farmer was busy in improving his lifestyle and preparing some more children to have more education. After 20 years of Operation flood in India, Pakistan too opened the eyes in the realm of practicality and pragmatism. Struggles were started to bring some same patterns of revolution in the country. PLDDB was established. They tried to assemble few “ideals” in the Pakistani environment but since its establishment, yet a lot of development is required in this regard. Of course, without due importance given by all the previous governments, it was impossible.

Meanwhile, big capitalists and corporate sector jumped into the race which was already won by them, blowing the economic status of poor farmer further. All the benefits got shifted in the favor of these big fishes of the market. The situation was idealized by the “intelligentsia” of the country considering it a big help of corporate sector in setting a precedent for the local farmers. Ironically, all that with pure exotic breeds (Bos taurus), where approximately 70  million of total dairy heads owned by poor local farmer actually comprises the Buffalo, indigenous cattle breeds (Bos indicus) and cross bred with maximum 50:50 genetic contribution. Exotic breeds require 10 percent more maintenance cost vis a vis indigenous cattle and have least adaptability and disease resistance to local environment and local pathogens, respectively. So, whole this process actually falsified any concept of white revolution in the country. It gone totally against what precedents were actually set by Indians. In the words of Verghese Kurien “the logic that dairy sector should be corporatized because farmers cannot handle it is the same kind of stupid logic given by Britishers 60 years ago that Indians cannot handle freedom, so we cannot give it to them.”

Father of white revolution in India (Vergehese Kuhen) holding an indigenous cow with halter and a rope.

Same logic is prevailing now among the dairy intelligentsia of the country, which is actually a farce. Pushing the things in favor of capitalists based economy, became our hobby since the era of British colonization.

Corporate dairy sector, no doubt, has its own beneficial vibe and status as a role model for other financially sound farmers, but considering it a model to poor local famer is really an injustice and tying it with the concept of revolution is some more injustice. This sector can play its role but up till now, very little development has been seen in positive terms.

A case study by Syed Hassan Raza et al. in 2009-10, suggested that adopting cooperative models, and on extrapolation of the results, average 25 percent more cost can be obtained, with uplift in milk quality and availability to consumers in return.

Some of the very vital steps taken in Operation flood of India were 1) Eliminating middle man 2) Developing local cooperatives of farmers 3) Uplift in health status with different projects especially that of FMD in the form of “Raksha” vaccine and vaccine for theleriosis 4) Teaching nutritional management to farmers and other techniques like urea molasses block 5) Improved breeding and husbandry practices 6) Fixing the costs of all the dairy related items like feed and products as well 7) Returns based on Profit-Loss to co-operatives and then it’s division among member farmers

It was as much simplistic as it seems. No rocket science was taught to farmers in this regard.

 What we have achieved

The curse of middle man still exists in Pakistan. No viable cooperatives have been developed which can have some trickle down effect to local farmers. Carpet vaccine started by L&DD department was a good way forward but the concept was anticipated too late when country faced million dollars of financial loss after last FMD outbreak. Still imported vaccines are considered reliable and are affordable only to rich farmers. Local research institutes have failed utterly in this regard up till now to have some viable solution devised. Farmers are still reluctant to adopt modern nutritional ways and this psychological warfare is not going good. Cost of both feed and milk are not fixed, which keep on creating an imbalance in fiscal status of the industry.

Government must adopt a holistic approach and in this process, can reliably follow Indian way of bringing change in the livestock sector of Pakistan. Aids  in this regard must be exploited in same way as it was done in the Phase 1 of Indian Operation. Only then there are chances that we will get inundated and irrigated in that flood, too.

Vet Counsel: Hairy Panters: A drastic sequela to FMD | Technolo...

Aphthous Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease or natively called as “Munh Khur” is a disease just after Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow Syndrome) which can cause an abrupt halt to your international trade of dairy and meat industry and could put your country in OIE (Acronym for World Organisation for Animal Health) database as a country banned for animal and animal product movement across its borders. This was briefly all about the disease aftermaths to the nation as a whole.

What a farmer actually bears is another horrible story.

Viral diseases are actually always known not for their own direct pathogenesis but the guests they bring in their subjects. These guests are secondary bacterium and glandular damages. Ultimately placing you in a poor stance that even if you are able to reduce the viral count to zero say theoretically, you could not say the disease is over by now. Disease is still there with its whole horrible sequela and actually the war is yet to be won.

Dairy farmers are fooled when they see their FMD (foot and mouth disease) affected animals with their Foot and Mouth lesions cured and there is no actual secondary manifestations prevailing, milk returned almost to bearable feasibility, animal returned to its normal intake, no worries they say to their pals.

February, March, September and October are the FMD seasons. As soon as the summer commences, the animals are observed momentarily for an open wide mouth with a lots of salivation and unrest, and what’s this? My beautiful Friesien which I recently bought through the best Cows or Heifer exporting company has turned to a “Mountainous Yak”!!!!!

Pardon me, Sir. Should I explain to you a little of the fact?? Your Cow would now onward would be called as a “Hairy Panter”. A cow/buffalo with long stinky hairs full of mud and marsh unable to withstand the environmental temperature and skin has totally lost her capability of thermoregulation and sweating and maybe some day when too stressed Pasteurella Multocida (H.S organism natively called as “Gal Ghotu”) will be activated, will find its way to the lungs and she will be found grunting to death in the yard.

Hairy Panter Syndrome, an FMD sequela less taught in Veterinary Schools as well as farmer trainings of Pakistan because of a trend of negligible follow-up in this field and urge of farmer that the vet must cure his animal on his first visit with 3 or 4 injections and secretly formulated electuary and never come back again until the disease appears again or animal gets on the verge of death.

Technically, Hairy Panters have following manifestations which are needed to be taken into consideration;

Abnormally Long Matted hairs.

Abnormally Long Matted hairs.

Very hard skin which becomes evident when you try to open during postmortem.

Intravenous Injections become too much difficult due to the same reason of hardness.

Even on the arrival of summer the blood vessels remain constricted (one another reason of difficult I.V). No Vasodilation thus no or little thermoregulation.

Animal’s requirement for space tend to be increased, he feels stressed with other animals.

Animals often observed with very high temperature of 105 F or 106 F even in the cooler parts of the day.

Even after survival in the summer, animal keep all other above habits in the next winter including gaping of mouth etc.

Reduced udder development is also considered as one of the cause but some people think it as mal-functioned Thyroid Gland (another possible sequela of FMD also considered to be a cause of Hairy Panters Syndrome however addressing to thyroid gland problem shown no effect on the skin or hairs)

Indigenously prepared Copper or Zinc Applications or administrations have also no effect.

Due to over-working lungs get damaged. BRD (Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex) being another cause.

In the bigger dairy farms it becomes a source of confusion for the nutritionist to manage its energy levels thus effecting the nutrition of other normal animals and leading to nutritional haphazardness in the farm.

Ultimate decision should be made by farmers either to what extent their animals are affected, and keeping them any more will be feasible or wastage of capital and time. In the long run there is no future for the farmer bearing such animals until or unless herd is replaced randomly. Nearly 5-20 per cent animals become hairy panters severely or moderately so always a wise vaccination plan should be devised regarding FMD consisting of all possible strains in the region.

Lastly, be under-confident always about FMD even your animals is 100 per cent cleared with the conventional lesions, always be prepared for the sequela and replacing your herd or individual animals, always be ready for any sort of respiratory complication for your animals and keep your housing and nutritional requirements too much optimum for such animals.

http://technologytimes.pk/post.php?title=Hairy+Panters%3A+A+drastic+sequela+to+FMD