US Agriculture Counselor visits UVAS, desires expanding collaboration

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Counselor Christopher Rittgers along with Senior Agriculture Specialist Mr Asmat Raza from the US Embassy Islamabad visited the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore and desired expanding their collaboration during a meeting with Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmed and senior professors.

Vice-Chancellor University of Education Lahore Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and representatives from the Pakistan Dairy Association Dr Muhammad Zubair, Prof Dr Aleem Bhatti, commercial dairy farmer, farm manager and a number of stakeholders from public & private dairy industries, UVAS faculty members and deans were present.

Speaking on the occasion, said that primary objectives of his visit was to expand their collaboration with UVAS especially in the areas of dairy herd management, food safety & food security, animal nutrition, food processing, poultry and beef. He sought suggestions and success stories of the UVAS Holstein Dairy Project, challenges like herd management, heat stress and training of the faculty, farmers, students and farm managers for their capacity building. Mr Asmat Raza lauded the state-of-the-art facilities of UVAS and its trained human resource experiences regarding uplift of dairy sector.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad showed a video documentary of UVAS to the delegation to give an overview of UVAS research, development interventions and student strength along with national and international collaboration.

Later, the US Agriculture Counselor along with Prof Dr Masood Rabbani visited different sections of Veterinary Academy, Pet Centre and Quality Operation Laboratory, etc.

Earlier, in the meeting Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha shared with delegation his experiences as Project Director of the Dairy Training Research Farm (DTRF). He said the UVAS promoted the trend of drinking milk instead of carbonated drinks. Prof Pasha said that students also get benefits from Ravi Campus laboratory facilities especially in their research work.

Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Rabbani spoke about dairy herd management and curriculum revision. He said that recently Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council added bio-risk management & one health courses in the veterinary curriculum. He said UVAS has always been willing to collaborate with the USDA in the joint research projects for the development of dairy sector. Chairman Department of Theriogenology Prof Dr Amjad Riaz gave a presentation on embryology project and Dr Hifz-ul-Rehman on UVAS Holstein Dairy Project. They shared the success stories, various challenges, trainings for capacity building, dairy herd management, feeding, heat stress management, genetics improvement, transportation and milk collection, etc.