PESHAWAR, Sept 14: The NWFP livestock and dairy development department plans to establish 33 hospitals and 80 dispensaries for animals.“We have prepared a PC-1 to establish 30 hospitals, whereas 80 dispensaries for diagnosis and treatment of livestock will be set up in rented buildings,” said an official.

According to him, the department also planned to set up veterinary epidemiology units at district and provincial levels to provide livestock treatment facilities in remote areas.

The official said the number of breeding centres for livestock had been increased to 363 this year from last year’s 262.

A fund has also been established, the income from which shot up from Rs6.5 million in 2006 to Rs16 million this year.

The official said the NWFP had 5.97 million commercial livestock, including 1.93 million buffaloes, 3.36 million sheep, 1.68 million goats, apart from 20.69 million domestic poultry.

Citing a report for 2006-7, the official said a network of 1,042 veterinary institutes had been made operational. Of these, 310 centres provided information to farmers on reproductive services.

Furthermore, he said, demonstration and breeding farms had been established in settled areas of the province for buffaloes, sheep and poultry wherein the department received four million livestock for treatment. Vaccines had been administered to 1.5 million livestock and 3.5 million poultry. Another 280,000 livestock had been received for reproductive services, he added.

The department has generated a revenue of Rs25 million from these services in 2007, compared to Rs22 million earned last year.

The official said the disease surveillance system had been strengthened with the establishment of basic veterinary laboratories in seven districts. These laboratories were being linked with the provincial laboratory to enhance its capacity.

He said that under a gift scheme, 150 cows, 300 goats and 10,000 poultry had been distributed among poor farmers. Women had been imparted training on domestic poultry farms in Peshawar, Charsadda, Abbottabad, Haripur, Mardan and Swat. They had been provided with poultry units to encourage them to start the business, he said.

The official said marketing centres had been established in eight villages of Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan districts, which would operate as model livestock centres on pilot basis. About 6,000 litres of milk were produced by the centres where about 80 trained farmers worked.