Research and Development Needs in Veterinary Sciences in India

 Researchable Issues in India in Veterinary Sciences

There are several issues to be addressed to solve the veterinary medical practice in India, a few are as under:

1. Monitoring of the vaccine and medicine quality used in veterinary practice: The compromised quality of veterinary vaccines and medicines brings a bad name to the veterinary profession and infuses disbelief among livestock owners of veterinary vaccines. The only body to test the quality of veterinary biologicals is the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, and the monopoly of an organization is synonymous with the phrase, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Therefore it is an urgent need for the nation to have alternate testing centres for Veterinary biologicals and medicines. It is one of the foremost duties of the State Universities to cater to the needs of the states, thus state Universities bear the responsibility to ensure the quality of veterinary biologicals and medicines. The development and improvement of the existing infrastructure and excellent human resources at state universities can very well do the job. Projects may be developed to do the quality monitoring of the commonly used veterinary biologicals and medicines in the States that can be taken up by the Department of Microbiology and Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with the College/Department of Biotechnology and Dairy/ Food Sciences. The outcome of the projects may lead to the claim of the alternate facility to cater to the needs of the Nation and the claim for the CDSCO-approved testing facility. Along the same line, there is an urgent need for the development of alternate methods for quality assurance of veterinary medicines and biologicals avoiding animal use through the use of in vitro quantification of active ingredients in vaccines and medicines, viz. for determining the amount of antigenic mass in vaccines through quantitative PCR, spectrophotometric measurements and immunological methods already there and need is to standardize and validate such methods through continuous monitoring. Similarly for medicines, active ingredients can be measured using HPLC, mass spectrophotometry, etc.

2. Validation of herbal antimicrobials to cut the cost of treatment and mitigate the emergence of antimicrobial resistance: Though the use of different herbs as antimicrobials is mentioned in most of the Materia Medica and Ayurvedic texts, the question is always raised and pertinent of their scientific validation as per rules of Allopathic system of validation and proving of the efficacy of medicines. Some of the well-known antimicrobial gerbs and their essential oils, extracts, and powders and their formulations need systematic proving studies in veterinary clinical settings. Many Universities are well equipped with excellent facilities at their clinical complexes, and excellent Departments of veterinary medicine, and pharmacology that can easily undertake this work at least on some of the herbs like Ajowain, Cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemongrass to determine the spectrum of activity, doses, and formulations of all such herbals. Besides, there is an urgent need to establish herbal drug quality control centers and standardization of methods for the same.

3. Development of facilities for autogenous and customized vaccines for veterinary use: This is another highly ignored area of research and development in India. Neither pharmaceuticals nor public sector research organizations have taken up projects to cater to the needs of livestock and poultry farmers. It is an established fact that for most of the common diseases of livestock and poultry, the agents are not the same or similar in different parts of the country and at different farms. Strain/ serovar variation of pathogens of diseases like FMD, HS, Pasteurellosis, Salmonellosis, and colibacillosis and pathogen species variation in disease-complexes like pneumonia, enteritis,  mastitis, metritis, and many more is common. Different strains/ serotypes and species of pathogens have established their niche in different regions of the country as well as in different animals, and sometimes in different livestock and poultry farms of the same region. Thus there is an urgent need to establish state-of-the-art microbiology facilities to monitor the pathogen variants prevailing at different farms and in different localities so that customized simple vaccines like inactivated viruses and bacterins may be exploited as local vaccines. It is a rapid and more economical way to control animal and poultry diseases and to eliminate the risk of large-scale vaccine/ vaccination failures, rampant in India.