NDDB subsidiary to set up 1,000 veterinary clinics

To provide subsidised livestock health care services, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) subsidiary, Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), will set up 1,000 veterinary centres all over the country in the next three years.

Of the 1,000 centres christened as ‘Raksha’ Veterinary Centres, about 300 would be set up in Uttar Pradesh alone.

These centres were started in western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh on a pilot scale to offer quality veterinary health care services at affordable cost to livestock owners.

Nearly, 200 such centres, including 100 in Uttar Pradesh, are currently operated by the company’s franchisee veterinarians.

“India’s milk requirement is estimated to touch 180 million tonnes a day by 2020 from about 100 million tonnes at present. Unless, the country’s livestock is provided better veterinary services, including prevention of diseases, the milk production may not match the heightened demand,” IIL’s head (animal health) marketing N S N Bhargav told Business Standard.

He said the country lost an estimated Rs 20,000 crore annually due to livestock diseases and the cost incurred in their treatment, besides loss of business in meat exports.

IIL is the largest veterinary vaccine manufacturer and exporter in the country and caters to nearly 80 per cent of the domestic vaccine requirement for Foot and Mouth Disease.

The company is setting up a new vaccine manufacturing unit at Hyderabad at an investment of Rs 150 crore and it would be functional by mid 2011. It would produce both human and animal vaccines.

“We will soon launch two veterinary and two human vaccines, including the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, which will be launched in December after human trials are completed and it is approved by the Drug Controller General of India,” Bhargav added. IIL would increase the number of ‘Abhay Clinics’, which are franchisee vaccination centres for humans, pan-India, from 3,000 at present to 5,000 in the next five years.