Dates of Project
May 1, 1998-August 30, 1998
Survey of Pohnpei, Guam, Saipan/Tinian, Belau, Yap, American Samoa
for the acquisition of baseline information.
September 1, 1998-June 30, 1999
The development of educational modules and the development of the
infrastructure needed to transfer or transmit that
information.
Geographic Areas Covered
The entire Pacific region.
Our Proposed Solution (see photos
below!)
Recognizing the need for increased veterinary services to
address animal health and public safety concerns of Pacific Island
communities, ADAP, in concert with the Secretariat of the Pacific
Community (SPC), has embarked on a Distance Learning Paraveterinary
Training Program. Identified by the Permanent Heads of Agriculture
and Livestock Production Services (PHALPS) as a priority need in the
Pacific Basin, these modules are designed to produce quality
practitioners in the areas of Animal Health, Animal Husbandry, Meat
Hygiene, Animal Quarantine, and Veterinary Laboratory Services.
There is a growing climate of cooperation in the region, and this
opportunity to streamline operations in addressing agricultural
issues of mutual concern between ADAP and SPC will sponsor further
interaction among the Land Grant colleges of the Pacific, the
University of the South Pacific (USP), the Fiji College of
Agriculture, national Departments of Agriculture, and the animal
production industry.
As island communities strive to attain self-sufficient and
sustainable economies, the importance of agriculture will increase in
the Pacific region. The ADAP/SPC joint paraveterinary training
program will yield competent personnel to help cope with increased
demands for safe, locally produced animal products.
Previous ADAP surveys and continuing communication with island
farmers and extension operatives have indicated that veterinary
services, feed costs, and artificial insemination projects are of the
greatest concern in the region, and in fact, ADAP has funded an on
going AI project for swine, under the direction of Dr. Halina Zaleski
of the Animal Sciences Department of the University of Hawai`i. The
ADAP/SPC paraveterinary training program will address these concerns
in the following manner.
Veterinary Services
The prime objective of this program is the training by distance
learning modules of local citizens to provide animal health and
production, meat hygiene, animal quarantine and veterinary laboratory
services to Pacific Island communities. These personnel will be in
regular contact with liaison veterinarians who can, with confidence,
assist in diagnostics and the acquisition of appropriate medications.
These trainees will also have the support of local government
institutions in the performance of their duties and they will be
competent in the keeping of records and reporting their findings.
High cost of feeds
Healthy, well managed livestock, require substantially less feed to
grow to maturity. The paraveterinary training program will teach
Animal Husbandry specialists to teach others sound management
procedures, use of available feed resources, records keeping and
artificial insemination techniques to improve the genetic potential
of the herd. Animal Health personnel with the assistance of
Veterinary laboratory specialists will help keep livestock free of
disease and parasites, and Meat Hygiene and Quarantine officers will
monitor the success of those prevention programs.
