By Our Correspondent<\/p>\n
President of the Association of Ruminant Veterinarians in Nigeria, ARUVIN, Dr. Adah Ogwuche, has linked ruminant health directly to food security, rural incomes and the national economy.<\/p>\n
He spoke in Abuja at the opening of ARUVIN’s Maiden National Conference, held at the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, ARMTI, from September 14 to 17, 2026, with the theme “Enhancing Ruminant Productivity: Health, Market Systems and Climate Resilience.”<\/p>\n
The event attracted the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Anzaku, Veterinary Council of Nigeria, VCN President, Prof. Mathew Adamu, Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, NVMA President, Dr. Moses Arokoyo, keynote speaker, Mr. Snorri Sigurdsson of Arla Foods, patrons, sponsors and delegates from across Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Ogwuche described the conference as a genuine milestone, recalling that ARUVIN started as an idea in 2019 when he was a young veterinarian, and grew through persistence, mentorship and congresses in Lagos, Jos and Taraba.<\/p>\n
He paid tribute to early believers in the vision, including the late Dr. Faruku Bande, noting that their encouragement sustained the association through moments of doubt.<\/p>\n
“Our cattle, sheep and goats are not only animals in our care; they are food on family tables, income in rural households, and a pillar of our national economy,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the theme was deliberate because disease burden such as PPR, calf mortality and mastitis, climate pressure on grazing and water, and poor market access are interconnected and must be tackled together.<\/p>\n
According to him, ARUVIN was created to bridge academia, industry, field practice and government, aligning Nigerian ruminant practice with global standards through affiliation with the World Association for Buiatrics and representation at the 2024 World Buiatrics Congress in Cancun, Mexico.<\/p>\n
He said the programme was carefully built to address contemporary field realities, from disease control and herd health economics to value chains and climate resilience, urging delegates to engage fully.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Anzaku described the maiden conference of the association as a historic initiative, saying the theme was timely because sustainable increases in livestock production cannot be achieved without placing animal health at the centre.<\/p>\n
He noted that cattle, sheep and goats remain central to Nigeria’s livestock economy and to the livelihoods of millions, supporting food and nutrition security, household income, employment, trade and rural resilience.<\/p>\n
He, however, listed major constraints holding back the sector to include animal diseases, weak preventive services, poor production practices, limited access to veterinary care, feed and water shortages, weak market linkages and increasing climate variability, stressing that the challenges are interconnected.<\/p>\n
According to him, poor nutrition increases disease susceptibility, while climate stress raises disease risk and reduces access to pasture and water, hence health, nutrition, markets, environment and climate resilience must be addressed together.<\/p>\n
Anzaku said the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development under Hon. Idi Mukhtar Maiha is committed to strengthening animal health systems as part of its broader agenda to build a productive, resilient and commercially viable livestock sector.<\/p>\n
He identified control of Peste des Petits Ruminants, PPR as a top priority, noting that the disease causes huge losses in sheep and goat production, especially among smallholders, making its control a matter of livelihoods, food security and economic development.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that government is strengthening PPR surveillance and control through serosurveillance and sero-monitoring across states, and is investing in the automation of the National Animal Disease Information System, NADIS to improve timely, data-driven decision making and rapid response.<\/p>\n
Anzaku, however, said technology alone cannot fix surveillance, as field veterinarians remain the critical link between livestock owners and the animal health system because they understand production systems and can detect and report unusual events promptly.<\/p>\n
Delivering his goodwill message at the Congress, the President of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, NVMA, Dr. Moses Arokoyo, described Nigeria’s livestock industry as a national asset waiting to be unlocked, not a problem to be fixed.<\/p>\n
He noted that while AU-IBAR estimates Africa has about 268 million pastoralists serving a 1.4 billion market under AfCFTA, FAO data shows 306 million Africans remain undernourished, a contradiction that highlights untapped opportunity. <\/p>\n
With its vast cattle, sheep and goat population, Nigeria’s challenge, he said, is not shortage of animals but low productivity, poor animal health, weak market access and low value capture.<\/p>\n
According to him, strategic investment across the livestock value chain remains one of the fastest ways to change the narrative for the 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty. <\/p>\n
He charged ruminant veterinarians to lead efforts in reducing disease burden through surveillance, vaccination, digital technology, genetics, biosecurity and improved service delivery.<\/p>\n
Arokoyo called for sustained advocacy for food security, poverty reduction and economic diversification, urging Nigerian veterinarians to understudy Kenya and Botswana’s models. <\/p>\n
“We must innovate, we must change, we must harness our livestock potential. The cost of inaction places our future in constant dependency mode and this is not acceptable,” he said, adding that animal health must become a cornerstone of Nigeria’s economic transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent President of the Association of Ruminant Veterinarians in Nigeria, ARUVIN, Dr. Adah Ogwuche, has linked ruminant health directly to food security, rural incomes and the national economy. He spoke in Abuja at the opening of ARUVIN’s Maiden National Conference, held at the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, ARMTI, from September 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17658,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions\/17658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}