Dr. Daniel Kasibule, the president of the Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA) has asked the government to go back to the drawing board and re-centralize the veterinary Department since decentralizing it is doing more harm than good.
Dr. Kasibule says that the deliberate move by the government, to place them under the district watch has greatly contributed to the hindrance of preventing and treating animal diseases across the country.
“At first we were a ministry then they merged us with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), then they further reduced us from a department to a sector and now we are at the district where final decisions are made,” he said.
“Districts have their own priorities because sometimes when a disease come, leaders would not give it a priority. Veterinary services are not thriving at the district simply because we have been put under the watch of someone who does not have our interests at heart,” he added.
Dr. Kasibule, who was giving his remarks at the 3rd graduation of the In-service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Trained Personnel (ISAVETs), in Jinja on Friday wondered why their colleagues in human health have been given all that is needed and yet leave them (animal side) helpless.
“Let’s do some undoes here, vets are saying that we are all children of the same family the MAAIF has not had a proper structure to cater for our sector. This is bad we need to see our sector in positions of authority, why isn’t there a position of senior animal husbandry officer among others? Government should and must style up,” he said DaParrot tried to engage Dr. Anna Rose Adenum Okurut, the Commissioner of Animal Health at MAAIF who had represented Maj. Gen. David Kasura, the MAAIF Permanent Secretary at the event, responded to Dr. Kasibule’s statements but she declined.
“I cannot comment on controversial issues, am a Civil Servant, my colleague may have his opinion as a leader but there is a clear government policy of decentralization which we cant oppose,” she said
Expert View
In agreement with Dr. Kasibule, Prof. Francis Ejobui, from the Makerere College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Research and Bio-Security believe that decentralization is doing harm if it comes to disease control.
“Diseases have no borders and boundaries, and decentralizing has been acknowledged so each district has its priority. We should ideally have a central chain of command like a Chief Veterinary Officer because decentralization has been a big setback in disease control, especially for transborder diseases,” he said this, he said is because of the district setup which for example put the District Veterinary Officer (DVO) under the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), which sometimes breeds conflict of interest in times when the DVO will, for example, approve the declaration of quarantine and CAO refuse because of tax benefits.
“If we have one chain of command where all DVOs are under the CVO, this will help more, especially when it comes to money allocation,” he added
Graduation
Speaking at the graduation, Maj. Gen. Kasura, who was represented by Adenum pledged that his ministry will work towards increasing the number of the in the country.
Currently, there are 87 ISAVETs out of a total number of 2,184 sub-counties across the country.
“We shall do this through collaboration with development partners and maybe extend these training to regional levels to cut expenses,” he said “Government recognizes the importance of ISAVETs because they will largely help in detecting and surveillance of animal diseases before they spread,” he added.
During graduation, a total of 40 ISAVETs, who underwent four months of intense training were passed out to join the 21 in the 2nd cohort and 20 in the first cohort, who graduated in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
“I am optimistic that with the ISAVET personnel, the country is assured of early disease detection and my ministry is committed to ensuring that each of the 2194 sub-counties has an ISAVET personnel,” he said
The ISAVET Program was launched in Uganda in 2018, after recognizing the recognizing the gaps existing in the animal health workforce in field epidemiology.
Speaking at the event, Priya Gujadhur, the Deputy Country Representative of FAO said that the program was launched to develop transferable, critical-thinking skills in the veterinary workforce, strengthen frontline preparedness, early detection, and rapid, effective, and efficient response to zoonotic diseases, transboundary animal diseases, emerging infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance within an integrative One Health approach.
“Through this ISAVET training, we have observed some notable achievements. They include but are not limited to the following; Increased knowledge, skills, and competencies in epidemiology and improvement in the delivery of daily duties in animal health, Fostered regional network for continued professional development of Frontline ISAVET Graduates; and Increased understanding of Transboundary Animal Diseases, Emerging and Re_emerging infectious diseases and zoonotic threats (including AMU/AMR) at a local level,” she said adding that others are;
“Enhanced sustainability and longevity of epidemiology units within governments for increased career opportunities such as; becoming trainers, responders to public health emergencies of zoonotic nature among others and Enhanced disease surveillance, reporting and early response in areas where ISAVET trainees work,”
UVA president was right