UVAS organized capacity building training workshop of ostrich farmers

The Department of Poultry Production of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore in collaboration with Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab organized a“Capacity Building Training Workshop of Register Ostrich Farmers of Punjab in Ravi Campus Pattokion

UVAS organized capacity building training workshop of ostrich farmersAdditional Secretary (Technical) Livestock & Dairy Development Department Punjab Dr Iqbal Shahid chaired the workshop and sought suggestion, issues & challenges an technical output from ostrich farmers for the uplift of ostrich farming in Punjab while UVAS Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Rabbani, Chairman Department of Poultry Production Prof Dr Athar Mahmood, Project Director Dr Talha Sajjad Yazdani and a large number of registered ostrich farmers from different districts of all over the Punjab were present.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary Livestock said that it is direly needed to create awareness among general public regarding the nutritional value of ostrich meat for the benefit of human body. He said Livestock Department disease diagnostics laboratories and staff are actively working and provide all maximum veterinary services of treatment for the facilitation of ostrich farming community in 36 different districts of Punjab.

He assured that Livestock Department will provide its full support for the profitability of ostrich farming community.

Prof Dr Masood Rabbani said that in future it is expected that meat export will open with China which will rapidly boost the ostrich farming in Pakistan and its farming community will get maximum benefits.

He said UVAS will impart best training practices to professional staff of Livestock Department for their capacity building.

He told that UVAS University Diagnostics Lab UDL and Livestock Department diagnostics labs jointly providing disease diagnostics facilities to stakeholders for the welfare of their animals and maximum peoples getting benefits from UVAS labs. He said we need to explore alternative agriculture products for making of ostrich feed formulation to reduce the cost of farmers.He said collective efforts are required to curb all issues and challenges.

An open discussion was held all the farmers put forward various suggestions for the uplift of ostrich farming in Punjab. They recommended that Livestock Department should start the health monitoring system especially for those private organizations who import ostrich chicks and selling in Punjab. They called health experts must recommend to their cardiac patients to eat ostrich meat regularlybecause it has less cholesterol. They also suggested to initiated mass print, electronic and social media campaign regarding the nutritional value of ostrich meat to attract the maximum peoples and boost ostrich farming. 

During training workshop experts Dr Talha Sajjad delivered a lecture to farmers on ostrich bird its meat and economical appraisal of ostrich farming, benefits of ostrich products, quality of chicks, housing &space requirement and temperature requirement for brooding while Dr Shabbir Shaheen from UVAS delivered his informative lecture on ostrich disease, cause, symptoms, prevention, diagnose  and health management etc. Later all the ostrich farmers visited modal ostrich of UVAS.