Agriculture
GAVmed holds forum on public private laboratory to strengthening poultry diseases surveillance
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s livestock sector have called for the integration of private veterinary laboratories into the country’s animal disease surveillance system to strengthen disease detection, improve reporting, and enhance preparedness for disease outbreaks.
The call was made on Thursday in Abuja during a stakeholders’ meeting on strengthening Nigeria’s veterinary laboratory network.
Director of Infectious and Transboundary Animal Diseases at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Professor Clement Meseko, said effective disease surveillance can only be achieved through collaboration among all actors within the veterinary laboratory ecosystem. He explained that while NVRI serves as the national reference laboratory, it remains distant from grassroots communities where vital surveillance data are generated. According to him, stronger partnerships with state, local government and private veterinary laboratories would ensure that disease information from the grassroots is captured, reported promptly and integrated into the national surveillance system.
Meseko noted that private laboratories are often closer to livestock farmers and can play a critical role in collecting samples and reporting suspected outbreaks before they reach state and national reference laboratories. He added that integrating surveillance data from both public and private laboratories would provide Nigeria with stronger evidence for planning and infectious disease control. He also urged the government to strengthen and incentivise private laboratories, saying such support would benefit both the laboratories and the country by expanding access to quality disease surveillance data.
Country Manager of the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) Nigeria, Moses Arokoyo, identified poor reporting and fragmented data collection as major weaknesses in Nigeria’s animal disease surveillance system. He said outbreaks and disease incidents often go undocumented, making it difficult to establish patterns for predicting and responding to emergencies. Arokoyo explained that harmonising data from public and private laboratories would improve Nigeria’s preparedness for disease outbreaks.
He disclosed that GALVmed is supporting efforts to integrate reporting through the National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS), with the aim of ensuring that data from both public and private laboratories are harmonised and centralised. According to him, the organisation’s objective is to help Nigeria build a robust disease reporting system, stressing that the country can no longer afford to operate in silos.
President of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Matthew Adamu, called on the government to strengthen veterinary laboratory infrastructure at the state and local government levels. While acknowledging NVRI’s status as the country’s foremost reference laboratory and its international recognition by the World Organisation for Animal Health, he said serious gaps remain at the sub-national level. He urged the government to equip veterinary teaching hospitals and state laboratories, while investing in personnel recruitment, training and retraining to meet international standards.
The stakeholders maintained that stronger collaboration among government institutions, veterinary teaching hospitals and private laboratories would improve disease surveillance, support early detection of outbreaks and strengthen Nigeria’s livestock health system.
Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Anzaku, represented by Dr. Adeniyi Adedoyin, also called for an urgent change in attitude toward disease data reporting. He warned that fragmentation and under-reporting continue to undermine Nigeria’s ability to control poultry diseases. Recalling that the issue had been raised several years ago, he questioned why teaching hospitals, public laboratories and private laboratories continue to maintain separate datasets instead of reporting through the National Animal Disease Information System (NADIS), as required under the Animal Disease Control Act.
He explained that the law mandates State Directors of Veterinary Services to collect disease data from veterinary teaching hospitals and private practitioners for integration into NADIS. However, he lamented that under-reporting has persisted for the past decade despite the legal framework. According to him, the goal is not to collect raw data but processed information that can be integrated into the national system. He noted that the human health and pharmaceutical sectors have already harmonised their surveillance systems, while the veterinary sector continues to lag behind.
Also speaking, Director General of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Dr. Onallo Akpa, called for greater investment in research and laboratory capacity to tackle Newcastle Disease and other endemic poultry diseases affecting the industry. He described poultry as the most consolidated sub-sector of Nigeria’s livestock industry and a major contributor to employment, empowerment and national economic development.
Akpa urged participants to move beyond discussions and focus on practical research and laboratory-based solutions. He tasked stakeholders at the two-day meeting to identify existing gaps and develop strategies that would reduce the prevalence of poultry diseases and minimise their economic impact on the livestock sector.