SRINAGAR: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, today inaugurated indigenous production of vaccines for sheep diseases and embryo transfer technology here at Disease Investigation Laboratory (DIL) Nowshera.
Director Sheep Husbandry Kashmir, Director Research SKUAST-K, Ex-Director Education SKUAST-K, Heads of Departments, faculty members, senior scientists, and others were also present on the occasion.
Dulloo inaugurated the indigenous production of the Food Rot Vaccine, Sheep Pox Vaccine, and the introduction of Embryo Transfer Technology in Small Ruminants.
The ACS termed the launching of vaccines and embryo transfer technology as a proud moment for Sheep Husbandry Department and congratulated the faculty, scientists of the Department, and SKUAST-K due to which we are able to succeed in the SKUAST-K of these vaccines and also helped in providing technical know-how in Embryo Transfer Technology.
He said these vaccines will help the sheep farmers to a great extent by reducing economic losses to their livestock.
Dulloo observed that J&K is importing around 60 percent of mutton from outside and there is scope, opportunity, and challenge for which we have to formulate a strategy that will help our Sheep rearers.
“We have to develop a strategy and we are working on it. We are actively working on reducing the mutton gap in the next five years and making J&K self-reliant in mutton production,” he said.
He said that embryo transfer technology will prove a game changer as the population of sheep will increase and the quality of mutton will also be better as compared to what we have today.
Also, the ACS also inspected several laboratories of DIL which include the Bacteriology Lab, Viral Diagnostic Lab, Cell Culture Lab, Foot Rot, and Sheep Pox Labs.
He also interacted with the scientist and faculty of these labs and enquired about the status of their research in their respective fields.
