Photo By Sgt. Adam L. Mathis | As part of a demonstration for collecting data in a project to determine the benefits...... read more read more
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PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan –To help move Afghan agriculture forward, U.S. Army Col. James Floyd had to become thoroughly familiar with the back end of a sheep during a visit to the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock in Parwan Province Feb. 3.
Floyd, the team veterinarian for the Kentucky Agribusiness Development Team II, demonstrated the proper technique to obtain the necessary fecal matter used to assess the intestinal health of the animal.
Floyd’s demonstration was part of a trip by the Kentucky ADT II to the Parwan DAIL to deliver supplies and provide technical advice in preparation for a study of the effects of deworming medicine on Afghan sheep.
Research like this hasn’t been done in Afghanistan since the 1970s and is necessary in a country with 20 million sheep and goats.
“If (Afghan farmers) have not dewormed before, they may see a big difference, however we are not sure if deworming makes a big difference in every location,” Floyd said.
Floyd’s uncertainty is due to the lack of data. He and other U.S. Army military veterinarians found no studies on gastrointestinal worms in Afghan sheep since the mid-1970s. This created a problem: without data, Floyd and other experts had no way of knowing if deworming treatments should be routinely recommended to improve the health of sheep.
As a result, Floyd and the other veterinarians proposed a deworming study of sheep that could help Afghan farmers and demonstrate to the government the benefit of applied scientific studies in the field.
“We realized we could make this into a project to answer that question … and get the Afghan government and universities involved,” Floyd, of Shreveport, La., said. “We have the goal of demonstrating that this type of research is valid for them to do to generate useful information for the Afghan agriculture.”
Generating this information is relatively simple. In three Afghan provinces, three flocks of sheep will be studied. On the first day, the sheep are tagged, weighed, given a physical evaluation and have their feces sampled to determine the amount of worm eggs present. This procedure is repeated ten days later to determine if deworming on the first day effectively reduced the amount of worm eggs. The data and samples will be collected by Afghan collaborators and analyzed at a Bagram Airfield lab.
“It is very helpful,” said Sayed Mahmood, animal herd manager for DAIL and in charge of collecting the data in Parwan, through an interpreter. “Afghans keep cattle and sheep for everything.”
Floyd hopes that this study has more benefits than just helping sheep. After 30 years of war and devastation in Afghanistan, he hopes this encourages the Afghan people to invest in applied scientific research on farm animals.
“(Afghans) been disrupted for so long that this type of systematic research on animals is pretty well all gone,” Floyd said. “So, this is a new thing for Afghan veterinarians and farmers.”
| Date Taken: | 02.03.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2011 11:57 |
| Story ID: | 64878 |
| Location: | PARWAN PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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