Animal Health

Animal Health Division is one of the six technical divisions in Department of Animal Production and Health which is responsible for disease surveillance and control to ensure the good animal health status for the development of the livestock industry of Sri Lanka.

The division provides the technical guidance and services, to control and eradicate the existing diseases of the country, to prevent the entry of exotic diseases to the country and to prevent the zoonotic diseases spreading within the country which may affect national public health. Maintaining the animal welfare and production of livestock to ensure the food of animal origin safety and food security is also one of the main objective of the Animal Health Division.

Main Functions of the Animal Health Division

• National level planning and implementation of animal disease control programs, eradication programs and exotic diseases emergency preparedness plans.
• Monitoring and evaluation of animal disease status in the country and dissemination of animal health related information locally and internationally for various purposes.
• Maintenance of animal vaccine storage and island wide distribution of them when necessary to control, prevent and eradicate the animal diseases in country.
• Strengthening and facilitation of island-wide Veterinary Investigation Centres network which oriented for animal disease surveillances and laboratory and field disease investigation services.
• Implementation of special programmes for livestock health improvement, monitoring and surveillance activities with the aim of increase the livestock production, ensure safety and security of food of animal origin as well as facilitate exportation of animal related food and non-food products of Sri Lanka.
• Formulation and implementation of Veterinary Public Health related activities in order to effectively control the identified zoonotic diseases under ‘One Health’ concept. 

With the aim to provide above services to the country, the programs and project activities of the Animal Health Division are conducted via two main units, namely Veterinary Epidemiology Unit and Veterinary Public Health Unit. The field level implementation of most of the above activities and disease investigations are done through the Veterinary Investigation Centers in each district of the Sri Lanka.

     Veterinary Epidemiology Unit

Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of Animal Health Division (AHD) is mainly responsible for maintenance of Animal Health status of Sri Lanka. All the activities of the unit are guided by the Chief Epidemiologist of Department of Animal Production and Health. Various projects, programs including surveillances are conducted under the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit along with animal disease information dissemination activities.

Passive animal disease surveillance is carried out by Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of Animal Health Division via 337 island-wide divisional government veterinary offices. Under this program, main livestock diseases of the country are monitored and diagnosed by clinical signs and they are monthly reported to the Animal Health division by the field veterinary surgeons. These information is analyzed and feedbacks are sent to all provincial directors and respective field veterinary surgeons quarterly.

Providing technical recommendations to disease control and prevention activities in the situations of disease outbreaks or exotic disease introduction to the country are done by Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of the AHD. These technical interventions are based on the observations of the continuous disease status monitoring programs through several active and passive surveillance activities which are conducted under this unit.

The national level vaccine storage which belong to Department of Animal Production and Health is maintained by the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of AHD. It is responsible for vaccine storing and issuing of them to field level with the aim of disease control and prevention through immunization of susceptible livestock species in various disease endemic areas of the country.

Collection of disease information which are received from various sources, maintaining an animal disease data base, routine updating and analyzing of them for decision making related to various purposes including disease control, disease prevention, exportation and veterinary regulatory activities are also done by Veterinary Public Health Unit as a main duty.

Animal Disease Status of Sri Lanka is biannually reported to the World Organization for Animal Health by Veterinary Epidemiology Unit of AHD. This disease information is published in World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) where animal disease information available for whole world. Further, animal health information which is published in this international website are collated and disseminated by the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit for national and international level decision makings which related to importation and exportation of animal related products.

The Sri Lanka Veterinary Epidemiology Bulletin is prepared quarterly and circulated among the state and private sector veterinarians and other stakeholders of the livestock industry to aware them on most important and significant livestock diseases and disease trends of the country.

Veterinary Public Health Unit

Veterinary Public Health (VPH) Unit of Animal Health Division is mainly responsible for the control of zoonotic diseases which may affect the human health and for the safety of food of animal origin which produced in country for human consumption. All the activities which are conducted by the VPH unit are led by the Veterinary Public Health Specialist of the Department of Animal Production and Health.

• Control of Zoonoses

With the aim of controlling zoonotic diseases of the country, several surveillance programs are conducted by VPH unit, prioritizing the most significant zoonotic diseases like Bovine tuberculosis, Bovine brucellosis and in poultry especially Salmonellosis and High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza.    Disease status of the aforementioned zoonoses in Sri Lanka under continuous monitoring through active and passive surveillance program which are implemented through the country wide network of Veterinary Investigation Centers. Private and State-owned livestock farms, Livestock markets, Poultry hatcheries, Dairy milk collecting centers are the places which are routinely subjected for monitoring and/or sampling, disease screening and further laboratory investigations under these surveillance programs.

• Assurance of Food Safety

Food safety related activities of VPH unit are mainly focused on the microbiological quality of food of animal origin which produced in Sri Lanka for local and international market. The monitoring of meat processing establishments is to ensure the free status of Salmonella spp and acceptable microbial counts of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus like food pathogens food and environmental compartment in contact with product/s. Further provide technical recommendations basically for registration purposes. Finally, it facilitates the establishment of high quality food production chain in the country. Current protocols on food safety assurance are being extended to cover chemical residues (ie: antimicrobial and other chemicals like heavy metals, pesticides), which could facilitate to conquer the wide global market.

• One Health Approach Related Activities

Further, the continuous collaborative activities and information sharing programs of VPH unit with Ministry of Health provides more broadened approach in different aspects of Public Health which helps to maintain effective consistency of Veterinary Public Health sector in Sri Lanka.

Veterinary Investigation Centers  

Animal Health Division has peripheral units namely Veterinary Investigation Centers which are established at regional level of the Sri Lanka. They are located in 24 administrative districts in the country, twenty-five of them have been already established as functional Veterinary Investigation Centers. Mannar district is still managed under the Vavuniya Veterinary Investigation Center where located in the adjoining district.

Each Veterinary Investigation Center is led by Veterinary Investigation Officer of the station. These island wide twenty-five centers are act as regional laboratories which responsible for conduct disease investigations in both field and laboratory. Further they play a major role in implementation of majority of field level activities which are planned by the Veterinary Epidemiological Unit and Veterinary Public Health Unit.

This laboratory network is strengthened with most of the basic laboratory diagnostic facilities for bacteriological, mycological, parasitological tests to diagnose the majority of common livestock diseases present in Sri Lanka. Further they are actively engaged in disease surveillance activities as well as disease control and preventive activities via routine testing, monitoring, vaccination of animals and providing technical recommendations to livestock farmers.

There are 25 veterinary Investigation Centers in Sri Lanka located in Homagam, Welisara, Kalutara, Elpitiya, Matara, Hambanthota, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee Wariyapola, Chilaw, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullathivu, Jaffna, Rathnapura, Kegalle, Badulla, Monaragala, Kundasale, Matale, Nuwara eliya, Pannala. Among them following three upgraded Veterinary Investigation Centers are designed to provide special services in addition to above basic laboratory services.

• Wariyapola Veterinary Investigation Center is strengthened with poultry disease diagnostic facilities by PCR and ELISA technique.
• Welisara Veterinary Investigation Center is strengthened to perform water quality tests, fish and poultry disease diagnostic tests with PCR technology and ELISA technique.
• Chilaw Veterinary Investigation Center is also strengthened to perform poultry and shrimp disease diagnosis activities using PCR technology and ELISA technique.