Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Uzbekistan is discussing prospects for expanding private veterinary practice and improving the quality of veterinary services, the Committee for Food Safety said.
Furkat Jalilov, deputy chairman of the Committee’s veterinary and animal health division, held a meeting with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) experts Nadav Galon and Orr Rozov.
The meeting focused on the current state of the private veterinary sector and its potential within the veterinary services system. The participants also discussed opportunities to expand private veterinary practice in the future.
The assessment is being conducted as part of an FAO project aimed at strengthening pandemic preparedness and response measures in Central Asia based on the One Health approach.
The Committee highlighted the importance of international experience and expert assessments in improving the veterinary services system, making more effective use of the private sector’s potential and raising the quality of services. The assessment results and conclusions based on them are planned to serve as a practical basis for further work.
Uzbekistan currently has about 2,500 private veterinary entities. They provide animal treatment, laboratory diagnostics and other veterinary services. The country also has pharmacies that sell veterinary medicines.
The participants separately discussed staffing issues, including attracting young and qualified specialists to the veterinary sector, particularly in rural areas, creating appropriate working and living conditions for them and possible mechanisms to compensate for additional expenses.
In education, the participants noted the need to strengthen practical training for university graduates and ensure the sector has a sufficient number of qualified specialists in line with its needs.
Following the meeting, key areas for further work were identified as strengthening the human resources capacity of the veterinary and food safety systems, ensuring rural areas have access to specialists, developing the private veterinary sector and adapting international experience to national conditions.
