MUK produces world class vet doctors

Jan 30, 2004

SIR — I read with much distaste the statements attributed to Ruth Musajjakawa in your recent article

SIR — I read with much distaste the statements attributed to Ruth Musajjakawa in your recent article, “Farmers decry fake vet doctors”. As a managing director of Musa Farm Supplies, Musajjakawa is expected have correct information.

First, she must know that in both human and veterinary medicine practices, people in Uganda tend to refer to anybody who can hold a syringe as a ‘doctor’. So in the scarcity of vets in Uganda, i highly suspect that what she called fake vets was really unqualified people who posed as vets. Secondly, her unresearched attack against the National Drug Authority for not licensing ‘poultry assistants’ to run pharmacies contains much ignorance and unpatriotism. not everyone who can save a life can run a pharmacy. Next will be those trained in first aid asking for permission to run clinics!

It is even wrong to say that the vets from Makerere University are not practical. Please take note of the following:
lAll local and international veterinary drug companies (manufacturing and supplying) like Quality Chemicals, Norbrook, Goodman, Nile Services, Coopers and many others have trusted their drugs with vets from Makerere. for the last decade, there has been a shift to the right in the drug supply and use.

l The vets from Makerere University are very practical by training and that is why they are being sought after internationally. During the five-year course of veterinary medicine, a full calendar year is spent in practice during the vacations. The fifth year is practical and nearly lecture-free on top of the first semester being a time for the compulsory examinable internship.

Ambulatory clinics conducted during the clinical years take students to all areas where cases are reported by the caring farmers like the central region, Nakasongola and Fort Portal. For the poultry sector, the students spend two years studying poultry management and diseases both in and out of Uganda on top of being taught by international experts.

That is why vet students from Scandinavia, the Americas, the Carribean, EU and Africa always fly in to do research with their Makerere counterparts. it is sheer madness for Musajjawaza to suggest that every animal kept in Uganda should have ‘assistants’ trained to treat it. Aren’t Makerere vets equipped with all the skills to handle them?

S. Kisaka
Makerere University

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