Madras Veterinary College resumes pet care services

With the public spending more time with their pets due to the lockdown, there is an increased care for pets. The footfall at the Madras Veterinary College has increased by more than 20 per cent and is now at an all-time high, said P Tensingh Gnanaraj, registrar, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. We resumed all veterinary care services and vaccination programmes, which were earlier suspended, but the restriction on administrative work continues with 50 per cent staff due to COVID regulations, the registrar said.

Crowd management is becoming an issue and all our staff are stretching their working hours. Pets help the public to fight depression and so serving pets in a way helps mankind. Last month, all the veterinary doctors were instructed to return for duty and the hospitals are now run at optimum capacity, the registrar said.

According to sources, primary veterinary centres and all veterinary college hospitals in the State have been seeing an increase in caseloads. In Thanjavur and Namakkal, the number of farmers and livestock owners visiting veterinary hospitals has surged over the past two months. Despite COVID, there is a renewed energy among farmers in buying livestock and some of them are returning to livestock farming, sources said.

“The demand for poultry has increased despite the lockdown and farmers are able to make good profits,” opined a professor in poultry science-based in Namakkal. The veterinary medicine industry mauled by the pandemic in April is bouncing back in areas like Namakkal, Coimbatore and Tiruchy, the professor added.