Veterinarian warns of risks caused by limited veterinary health care services in rural South Africa
The vice-president and veterinarian at the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC), Doctor Nomsa Mnisi highlights the risks associated with limited veterinary health care services and solutions to tackle them.
According to Dr. Mnisi people living in South Africa’s more remote rural areas face challenges such as the limited availability of veterinary professionals, inequitable access to veterinary services and the high cost of private veterinary care.
It is critical for farmers and pet owners in rural areas to be aware of the importance of proper preventative veterinary care to ensure optimal animal health to prevent outbreaks of animal diseases which ultimately pose a threat to food production and security, as well as public health.
“This is because animal health is closely linked to human and environmental health”, asserts Mnisi.
Dr. Mnisi further highlights that the challenges faced by rural farmers depend largely on the services of veterinarians and para-veterinarians located in urban centers as they drive long distances to examine and treat sick animals.
“Sometimes, a farmer or animal owner will call for a service and only get attended to days later — it’s seldom they can ask for and receive help on the same day, and animals can die in that time.
Furthermore unexamined diseases in animal populations can affect the availability and safety of food produced, with implications such as food shortages and expensive imports.
“There is also the matter of antimicrobial resistance, which can arise through the irresponsible use of antibiotics. Plus, there are the public health implications of, for example, stray dogs with rabies biting humans, and if you do not take care of issues like internal and external parasites, they can come back and haunt human health.”
She says that these challenges could be addressed through awareness and education campaigns. Although there are few skills development training programs provided to the rural residents, Mnisi says that the roll-out of these programs is not as desired, and “More can be done”, she asserts.
However Dr. Mnisi warns that it is not merely a matter of training up and dispatching more veterinary and para-veterinary professionals to rural areas.
“The reality is that it is often not financially sustainable or viable to set up permanent practices in these areas, and the challenge requires a more nuanced approach”, she advises.
Another solution could be for veterinary health care professionals to set-up non-profit organizations which provide health services to the underprivileged pet or animal owners.
“We just need professionals who are prepared to do that, and I am one”, exclaimed Mnisi. Furthermore she suggests that the best way for pet owners and farmers in rural areas to access proper preventative veterinary care is to have Para-Veterinary professionals from the area or interested in staying there, servicing the area on preventive veterinary medicine and also providing awareness on the service.
“Para-Veterinary professionals are not as expensive to maintain as veterinarians and they are in large numbers. My suggestion is that they can organize themselves and for the pharmaceutical companies to sponsor their start-up”.
The community will get service, the Para-Vet professionals will be employed/self-employed and the pharmaceutical companies will sell more stock, more profit.
Ultimately, animal and human health should become everyone’s business, asserts Dr. Mnisi. More visible communications campaigns in this regard, including job shadowing, could also prick the curiosity of youngsters from under-served areas to want to enter the veterinary and para-veterinary professions and make a difference in the communities they hail from.
“I’m here as a veterinary professional to bridge the gap between human and animal health,” she says. “I always say that a happy animal means a happy farmer and a happy community.”
