Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government has warned veterinarians against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics to treat livestock, explaining that the effect on animals and humans could lead to antibiotic residues.
A Senior Officer, Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Zainab Abdulkareem, who led a sensitisation walk at the weekend in Abuja, rather appealed to stakeholders to adopt the use of antimicrobial resistance substance.
Second week of November each year is known as World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) is selected to educate the public on antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among public and health workers to avoid the use and spread of antibiotic resistance.
The 2018 WAAW campaign seeks to provide awareness and health hazard on the use of antibiotics for livestock.
Dr. Abdulkareem, in her address emphasised the need for livestock farmers and the public to guard against the usage of antibiotics to treat animals.
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She noted that “due to the importance attached to antimicrobial resistance, the United Nations has set aside second week in November to campaign against the abuse of antibiotics for the treatment of animals.”
She called on farmers to adhere strictly to the ethics of the profession through proper diagnosis before embarking on any treatment of animals or risk being sanctioned.
This is even as the Secretary General of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Dotun Fadipe, insisted that farmers must ensure that they observed the normal withdrawal period when using antibiotics before selling their poultry products.
Fadipe, stressed the importance for veterinarians to give a week or two withdrawal period based on the prescription of such drugs. More so, appealing to them to take the campaign on antimicrobial resistance seriously.