VETERINARY PROFESSION: THEN, NOW AND FUTURE
Dr. Shivani Mamane
Assistant Professor,
Dept of Veterinary Parasitology,
Veterinary College Bidar, KVAFSU
Abstarct:
Veterinary profession is one of the ancient profession of the world. Initially started with treating of elephants /horses in the wars/battles to current time included various animals starting from livestock, pets, exotic birds, wild animals etc. No doubt the profession has boomed with the agricultural activities. Currently has become most economical in dairy industry. It has been growing with faster pace and as a result the vets and veterinary education institutions are on rise.
Keywords: Veterinary education, Ancient era, Agricultural boom, Future of Veterinary profession
Veterinary mainly deals with managemental practices, diagnosis, treatment and control of diseases among the Livestock and wild animals. Many people are still unaware of this profession, which may be due to lack of awareness or social status / presence of vets population at various communities and also due to no separate ministry of this particular profession at national level it is still being held under the shadow of the agriculture.
In ancient times the profession was restricted to the war areas wherein the horses or elephants were used during wars/battles and got wounded as written in various ancient manuscripts. As time advanced and the man was introduced to the concept of agriculture- draught animals and dairy animals, the veterinary profession was booming at the rural level initially.
So, a number of animal husbandry related activities held an importance in rural areas and a number of festivals were celebrated in order to pay respect to the livestock especially Maatu Pongal in Tamil Nadu. Gradually as the AH activities were at its rise, there was talks about the white revolution, awareness about Veterinary Profession and its importance made talks in the rural areas, towns and cities of India. As the decades passed the livestock has been proven a promising business and many people were interested in the dairy production, meat production, egg production and many other livestock related activities. With this hike, the profession grew anonymously and at rural countryside the Vets received a huge amount of respect.
Now, the urban side people are having a lot of passion for keeping the pets such as dogs, cats of various different breeds and exotic birds and pets. By this rise in the pet population the Veterinary profession has turned into commercial level at urban and metro cities in a very short span of time. As a result of this, the number of Veterinarians and the institution providing veterinary education have also increased in number.
The animal population mainly ox, bullocks in rural areas are declining now a days, so in future generation or upcoming days our profession may be restricted to only dairy and pet animals. To tackle these issues proper awareness and a wave of revolution is needed to practice AH and let our future generations know about our profession. There is every chance of zoonotic or any other emerging novel diseases in future so we have to be self sufficient and gain a ample amount of knowledge about the diseases in sylvatic areas in advance so there is no question of panic. We must be ready in each and every way possible to face the world and inturn grow our profession to great heights. There is also possibility of specialization with respect to each spp or animals in upcoming era.
