Despite zoonotic disease threat, Keralam’s proposed veterinary public health wing yet to take shape
Kerala has yet to establish a dedicated veterinary public health wing despite recommendations made over a decade ago. Experts warn that the lack of this specialized unit hinders the state's ability to manage recurring zoonotic disease outbreaks like Nipah and Avian Influenza.
Why it matters
The delay in institutionalizing public health infrastructure poses a significant risk to human and animal safety in the face of frequent viral spillover events.
Over a decade ago, the Oommen Chandy Cabinet in Keralam approved the recommendations of the Gita N. Potty committee that mainly dealt with the wage disparities among veterinary officers in the Animal Husbandry department in Keralam. One of its other key proposals, setting up a dedicated veterinary public health wing to tackle zoonotic diseases, is yet to become a reality.
Sources in the department say that the veterinary public health section with a food safety unit and animal management and welfare units were proposed as part of an organisational restructuring. The animal management and welfare units were explicitly tasked with animal tranquilisation, animal birth control (ABC) squads, welfare work and the control of zoonotic diseases. The committee had given its report in 2014, which was approved two years later.
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