Dr Anurag Borthakur
(anuragborthakur@yahoo.com)
At a time of tremendous uncertainty around food security and overall economic progress, veterinarians play an increasingly important role in improving access to high-quality food. Veterinarians have been instrumental in advancing goals anchored in food safety through the delineated verticals of structured delivery portals, such as production, disease prevention, and efficient husbandry practices. Food security has acquired greater salience within the policy framework in the face of the geopolitical chaos that has hugely scuppered efforts towards achieving the envisaged targets. The conflagration that has engulfed West Asia has had a cascading effect on the flow of fertilizers to an extent that if the situation continues to fester, the supply shock could now come to forestall the developmental trajectory that the agriculture sector has had the luxury to flaunt. Animal-based sources of nutrition, while not a complete substitute, could at least mitigate the impact and help endure this challenging period in the current chaotic environment, which now seems to be navigating a precarious path.
World Veterinary Day, which falls on 25th April this year, the last Saturday of the month, has held up as its maxim the pivotal role veterinarians play to fulfil the various needs underpinning the neat blueprint that mirrors the efficient realization of governance objectives. The theme "Veterinarians: Guardians of Food and Health" aptly highlights the profound responsibility a veterinarian is entrusted with to deliver on the multitude of complex objectives that eventually helps to provide a clearer picture for future government planning. Food safety is a major fulcrum upon which the layered structure of public health, consumer confidence, and general trust is built, with each layer being a subject of intense participatory discussion. Veterinarians are always at the forefront of various policies directed at disease control. Recently in Assam, the outbreak of African swine fever had triggered a lot of anxieties among the pig farmers, and the veterinarians stepped in assiduously to cull, issue warnings and restrict the entry of pigs from affected areas, minimizing the impact of such a severe blow that the farmers have been at the receiving end of.
In one of the episodes of "Mann ki Baat" sometime in December 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expounded on the dangers of antimicrobial resistance and how it is imperative to bring in place effective strategies to combat the menace staring us in the face. His mention of AMR commandeered a lot of editorial space, prodding the public health, medical and veterinary communities to come together and encourage collectivisation of efforts to coordinate, cooperate and work towards a shared goal. Veterinarians have the domain knowledge to ensure rational use of antibiotics in animals. It is now even more important that veterinarians stay vigilant against indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animals and also that they create more such forums where the farmers could be educated on the dangers of AMR and even incentivised to not use antibiotics unnecessarily. Resistant bacteria can move from animals to humans through food and contact, and the challenge to curb its spread spans multiple spheres of engagement. AMR is a classic one health problem, and time is now ripe for joint efforts of doctors, veterinarians, doctors and environmental scientists to reflect outcomes that match with the government mandates geared towards controlling antimicrobial resistance.
Meat inspection in slaughterhouses is a routine task that veterinarians perform, and it has huge implications in ensuring food safety for the public. Honesty and integrity demonstrated by the veterinarians in performing such inspections directly translate into more solid outcomes in terms of human health. It is important to identify certain diseases in animals, chief among them being tuberculosis, brucellosis, and cysticercosis, and segregate affected animals to help circumvent their entry into the food chain. Proper anti-mortem and post-mortem examinations of animals play a crucial role in ensuring that healthy meat reaches consumers. Dairy farms and poultry units could also be potential sources of food contamination, and the vigilant watch of a veterinarian can minimize the risk of such contamination winding its way down to the Indian kitchen.
The control of zoonotic diseases forms the centrepiece of the formulation of strategies that shape the contours of human health objectives. Early detection and diagnosis of zoonotic diseases in animals can help stymie their spread to humans. Vaccination for some major zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis, tuberculosis and rabies can blunt the impact and rate of damage such diseases are otherwise capable of inflicting on the human population. Veterinarians are also tasked with conducting surveillance and helping in early disease detection which, when done properly, can offer greater bandwidth to policymakers to design, formulate and foist rigorous, effective and timely countermeasures and mitigate zoonotic risks.
At a time when the Iran-Israel-US conflict is serving as a lightning rod for political and economic anxieties, its impact on fertilisers and other key areas of government operations means that veterinarians have an even greater role in bringing together multiple stakeholders to produce outcomes that not only address food shortages but also create a broad framework for the exchange of ideas, leading to coherent and robust plans as a result of various experts analysing a mix of complex concepts.