Union Animal Husbandry Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh will announce the G20 Pandemic Fund on October 25, 2024. Photo: X/@Dept_of_AHD
The Center will implement a $25 million G20 Pandemic Fund to develop comprehensive health insurance for livestock in response to animal-to-human pandemics such as COVID-19. . Union Animal Husbandry Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh announced the fund on Friday (October 25, 2024). It aims to strengthen the country’s “animal health security” by upgrading and expanding animal health laboratories and developing a laboratory network.
The center said the fund will be implemented in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and will be utilized by August 2026. Singh said the fund supports existing funds. Strengthening the sector’s initiatives through enhanced disease surveillance, including genomic and environmental surveillance for early warning, testing infrastructure development, and cross-border collaboration, and more integrated surveillance and control of zoonotic diseases. Build a system based on
Alka Upadhyaya, secretary general of the ministry, said the fund is aimed at strengthening animal health security and that pandemic preparedness and response efforts are building resilience to protect the country from “zoonotic diseases.” This is a very important step towards building a framework that will help build a sustainable society.
Abhijit Mitra of the Union Animal Husbandry Commission said that according to the infectious disease index, the country is at high risk of new infectious diseases. “India has high environmental risks and public health vulnerabilities, with a low score (42.8) on the Global Health Safety Index. 60% of pathogens that cause human disease originate from livestock and wild animals, and new “Seventy-five percent of human pathogens that have emerged in the United States are of animal origin,” he said. Climate change is increasing the risk and frequency of zoonotic diseases in India, one example of which is the incidence of the mosquito-borne zoonotic disease dengue fever, he said.
Mitra added that improving animal health security and animal disease management is the cornerstone of strengthening India’s pandemic preparedness and response (PPR), but has been the weakest link in India’s PPR. “This Pandemic Fund project, which addresses human health from an animal health perspective, recognizes that pathogens originate from animals (domestic or wild animals) and are transmitted to human populations to reduce health, nutritional security, and vulnerable populations (small and “It will reduce the risk of endangering the livelihoods of people (farmers, especially women),” he said.
The fund also aims to develop workforce development initiatives to improve the skills and capabilities of the animal health workforce. It will also be used to upgrade data management systems, with enhanced analytical capabilities enabling better risk assessment, improved decision-making and more effective communication strategies related to animal health risks. The project hopes to strengthen institutional capacity at both national and regional levels by supporting the development of disaster management frameworks for the livestock sector.
Published – October 26, 2024 10:55 PM IST
