Professor Dr Md Mokhlesur Rahman
The concept of a combined degree is a wrong concept. Degree should be specific, not combined. Combined degree is a thinking of the last century (thinking of 100 years back). It is an era of specialization and specialists are produced from a specified degree.
Graduates of combined degree are not skilled enough for smart and sustainable development of livestock. It needs skilled animal breeder to adopt policy for the improvement of animals (cattle: dairy and beef, goat, sheep, buffalo: river and swamp type, chicken: meat and egg type, duck, quail, pigeon etc.) to get more production from an individual animal. An animal nutrition specialist can ensure the feeding and nutrition management through balanced ration formulation.
It also needs skilled personnel for the development of the dairy industry (milk production, processing, preservation, various milk product development and value addition, marketing of milk and milk products). Beef fattening is a tool for improving the livelihood of the rural poor that ensures the healthy cattle for sacrificing in our greatest muslim festival: Eid ul Adha. Meat animal (goat, sheep and buffalo) production, meat, meat products and by-products (hides and skin) processing, integrated livestock-crop-fish production, zoo and wildlife conservation and management, manure management and recycling for better option.
Poultry production needs special care and management in parent-stock farm, grand-parent stock farm (light management, feeding and drinking management, nest management, litter management, cage management, cock management), commercial layer and broiler management, hatchery (incubator management, day old chick management: grading, packaging and distribution of day-old chick). Animal Husbandry (AH) graduates are efficiently involved in all this production activities. AH graduates study 192 course credits including 135 credits on animal production and 19 credits on animal health. Moreover, they can mitigate food security hazards in livestock and poultry sectors as well as animal origin food security and animal welfare. It needs 4 years bachelor degree with 6 months internship program to achieve the degree of BSc Animal Husbandry. It is a degree of solely for animal production.
On the other hand, the doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) is fully a treatment-oriented degree worldwide. It is rich and smart degree throughout the world and it needs 5 to 6 years to achieve DVM degree. A DVM graduate achieves knowledge in microbiology virology, bacteriology, protozoology and hygiene), epidemiology, parasitology, pathology, anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, medicine of large ruminant. small ruminant, poultry and wild animals, jurisprudence, surgery and obstetrics, radiology and imaging. A DVM graduate is very much efficient in disease diagnosis and treatment of animals. The DVM or Vet Science and AH graduates also study 12 30% preliminary production courses, which is not sufficient for smart animal production. They are smart enough for disease diagnosis and treatment. It is a completely wrong conception that one person is enough for the production and treatment.
Animal production is a result of proper breeding, feeding and nutrition, care and housing management, research in quality product (milk, meat and egg) development, marketing of the products and treatment. Both the degrees (BSc Animal Husbandry and DVM) are recognized for animal production and treatment respectively. Treatment is not the way of production, but it is the way of survival of the sick animals. Diseased and cured animals never achieve 100% of its past production. The remedy of bird flu or swine flu or other flu is only the killing of birds or swine. No treatment is effective here. BSc Animal Husbandry includes 76% production courses and 10% treatment-oriented courses, while Doctor of Veterinary Medicine includes 12.3% production courses and 70% treatment-oriented courses. BSc Vet Sci. and AH includes 25-30% production courses and 61-68% treatment-oriented courses.
It is very much clear from the above statement that Animal Husbandry graduates are skilled in production-oriented fields. On the other hand, DVM or Vet Science and AH graduates are skilled in treatment-oriented fields. Therefore, it is strongly suggested to the Government of Bangladesh to recruit at least five (5) Animal Husbandry (production) graduates such as animal breeder, animal nutritionist, dairy production officer, meat and meat products development officer and poultry production officer in every upazilla for the commercial and small-scale sustainable livestock production as well as to ensure smart livestock development. It needs at least two (2) treatment graduates (may be from DVM or Vet Science and AH) for the diagnosis and treatment of the diseased animals in every upazilla.
