Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on livestock and poultry sectors: veterinary students perception and suggestions. (Special issue.)

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to know perception of veterinary students on impact of COVID-19 lockdown on livestock and poultry sectors and suggestions to manage the lockdown impact. Data were collected through google form from 73 veterinary undergraduate students on July 2021. The data was analysed by descriptive statistics, Rank Based Quotient (RBQ) and results were interpreted. Our results revealed that veterinary students strongly agreed with increased prices for concentrate feed and limited supply (50.70%), limited availability of veterinary doctors for private practices (39.70%), declined livestock sales owing to livestock transportation constraints (41.10%) and declined demand for meat/livestock due to consumer unreadiness (28.80%) toward the livestock sectors. Further, the study reported that veterinary students had greater perception on price drop of eggs and broiler chicken during lockdown's initial period (47.90%), rise in consumption of country chicken meat and eggs (61.60%) and farm labour shortages (47.90%) in the poultry sector. These participants suggested, expansion of milk collection centres;and sell milk and meat via a mobile van (RBQ 47.06);give COVID-19 vaccination priority to farm labour;employ family labour for farm maintenance (RBQ 36.76);and promote COVID-19 measures through prominent local leaders (RBQ 35.29) to manage COVID-19 impact on livestock.