This paper reviews the animal health services in rural areas in the highlands of Ethiopia, particularly those areas of
intervention by ILRI’s LIVES Project in Oromia, Tigray, Amhara, and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’
(SNNP) regional states.
Ethiopia has established animal health services by both the national and regional governments, and private service providers, some of which are supported by non-government organizations. The numbers of veterinarians seem large, there is evidence of professional capacity, and the country was a leader in the national and international program of eradication of bovine rinderpest. However, many authors quote the inadequacy of animal health services.
Recommendations to improve service delivery would include more budget (re)allocation across departments, reasonable treatment of clinicians, increased liaison and activity between regional veterinary laboratories and field livestock agency/departmental staff, review into the effectiveness of regional veterinary laboratories, effort to increase
the accuracy of diagnoses by clinicians and effectiveness of some vaccines, and the liberalization of the provision of animal health services.
Hooper, P. 2016. Review of animal health service delivery in the mixed crop-livestock system in Ethiopia. LIVES Working Paper 18. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.
