Staff shortage hits animal healthcare
Visakhapatnam: Veterinarians on Monday sought immediate recruitment of qualified veterinary doctors, alleging that a shortage of professionals is affecting livestock healthcare services across Andhra Pradesh despite the deployment of 6,137 para-staff through Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs).
Veterinary doctors staged a sit-in protest in front of the district animal husbandry office in Visakhapatnam and submitted representations to the district animal husbandry officer and the district collector through the Public Grievance Redressal System (PGRS).
The protest was led by doctors B. Divya, L Narayana Rao, Ramya, Roopa Sudha and Shiva, who sought filling of vacant veterinary posts and strengthening of animal healthcare services.
The doctors said no permanent recruitment of veterinary doctors had been undertaken since 2018. While para-medical staff played a supportive role, they are not authorised to perform surgeries, diagnose complex diseases, conduct post-mortems or prescribe medicines, they said.
Divya said veterinary doctors alone are legally empowered to diagnose diseases, perform surgeries and oversee disease-control measures. Diseases such as brucellosis, anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu posed risks to both animals and humans and require professional intervention.
She also highlighted the role of veterinary doctors in supervising animal birth control and anti-rabies vaccination programmes and stressed the importance of animal health in protecting public health.
The veterinarians demanded that the government fill the proposed 258 veterinary assistant surgeon posts and appoint qualified professionals to strengthen the department.
They also referred to ongoing investigations into allegations relating to the appointment of some animal husbandry assistants and welcomed efforts to address the issue.
Narayana Rao said the shortage of veterinary doctors was affecting livestock healthcare, the dairy sector and employment opportunities for qualified graduates. He maintained that para-medical staff could not be a substitute for trained veterinary professionals and called for immediate permanent recruitment.
The veterinarians would continue district-level protests and warned of an indefinite statewide agitation.
