ARDS to boost animal disease surveillance, reporting system

By Stanley Onyekwere

As part of efforts to mitigate the outbreak and spread of animal diseases in the nation’s capital, the FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat (ARDS), has disclosed plans to strengthen its disease surveillance, detection reporting and control system.

The ARDS Mandate Secretary, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim, who made this disclosure during a working visit to the FCT Veterinary Clinic at Nyanya, expressed satisfaction on the state of facilities at the Clinic with particular reference to the diagnostic laboratory, commissioned by the Honourable Minister of State, FCT Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, in 2021. 

According to a statement from Zakari Aliyu, Deputy Director, Information, ARDS, which was made available to PeoplesDaily yesterday, Abubakar, commended the Veterinary officials for efficiently managing the facilities at the laboratory which he noted was fully equipped to meet the needs of animal owners and livestock farmers in the FCT. 

He however stressed the need for animal owners and livestock farmers in the FCT to desist from patronising quack clinics. 

 “As you can see, the facilities here are state of the Art and comparable to the best anywhere in the world. I therefore would like to call on residents to patronise the clinics, in order to access quality animal healthcare.

“We intend to build the capacities of our Veterinary Health officials and Doctors to expose them to the modern trends in disease surveillance and reporting”, Abubakar stated.

Speaking on the issue of disease prevention and control, the Secretary disclosed that the Secretariat has through the Department of Veterinary Services strengthened its surveillance system to enhance its capacity to detect and combat the outbreak and spread of animal diseases. 

The visit also took the Secretary to the FCT Fish market at Kado where he directed the Department of Fisheries to ensure that the issues that have prevented the full utilization of the Laboratory be addressed to enable it carry out its responsibilities of conducting daily laboratory tests to ensure the safety of fish sold to the public.