The Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) has disclosed that the number of veterinarians in the country was not enough to combat the outbreak of anthrax and other livestock diseases, and urged the government to take more proactive measures to curb the spread.
VCN’s Acting Registrar, Oladotun Fadipe, made the disclosure while speaking in Abuja on Friday at the end of the 2025 staff retreat.
“Nigeria needs at least two veterinarians in each local government across the nation to curb the spread,” he said, noting that “many of the livestock diseases, if curtailed in animals, will ensure safety for human beings.”
According to Fadipe, the numbers of vets that are trained in Nigeria today are not enough to service the system and that the outbreaks of anthrax and other livestock diseases will continue if more vets are not employed.
He said, “Prevention, they say, is better than cure but when you go to many of these states, you have very few veterinarians in the system. And that is why this outbreak will continue. We are calling on the government to ensure that every local government should have at least two veterinarians in their employment.
“The numbers of vets that are trained in Nigeria today are not even enough to service the system, yet a lot of those vets are not being employed. So, it is a call to the government that if we have vets at their duty posts and properly placed, they will have detected it before it even happened.”
Speaking earlier, veterinary doctor and president, Farm Alert, Dr. Kayode Femi, noted that the theme: “Enhancing efficiency and productivity in challenging times” underscored the need to step back and look inward to ensure productivity and efficiency while deploying their expertise to the world as staff of VCN.
“It’s important that we’re doing this today and I hope that by the time this retreat is done, people will come up with a better mindset. People understand the quality and the values of tools that they use to enhance productivity.
“And more importantly, I think the African continent will be grateful for moments like this where we have to step back to ask ourselves critical questions to move us forward.”