ISLAMABAD, March 28: The federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, has vowed to eliminate diseases in livestock as it is the backbone of agriculture sector and the country’s economy.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a workshop on production and quality control of haemorrhagic septicaemia vaccine’ arranged by Pakistan Agriculture Research Council here on Friday.

He said: “Livestock is an integral part of our lifestyles. It not only provides milk, meat, wool and leather for our daily use but is also embedded in our cultural traditions.

“A large population in the rural areas is also dependent on livestock for their livelihood,” he added.

The minister said livestock faced four major problems like low genetic potential, limited and inadequate feed resources, infectious diseases and poor marketing infrastructure, did not pay the farmers just reward for their hard labour and investment.

He said diseases like haemorrhagic septicaemia or gulghotoo were particularly important since these might kill the buffalo or cattle, depriving the farmer of his livelihood.

“I have seen poor families mourning the death of their animal more than the death of a child in the family,” the minister said.

He said it was heartening to note that vaccine to control gulghotoo were manufactured in public and private sector. Whereas, vaccines prepared in public sector institutes were needed to safeguard the interests of resource-poor farmers, it would be the private sector that had to take lead and cater to the needs of commercial and peri-urban dairy farmers, he added.

Mr Rind said Pakistan had made significant progress in the control of infectious diseases in livestock. Major epidemics in the animals were on more a scene of common occurrence as used to be in 60s and 70s.

“We have recently declared Pakistan provisionally free from rindepest, the most dreadful infections disease of cattle and buffaloes. But still, the road to destination is long and we have to achieve many milestones by eradicating all major infectious diseases,” he maintained.