Profiles: Livestock

Livestock is integral to Afghanistan's economy and culture. Animals provide farm draught power, nutrition, raw materials for goods and tradable products. Cattle, sheep and goats are the main animals kept, but camels, asses, water buffalo and yaks are as well. Poultry is once again becoming an important source of nutrition and income, and pigeons were once kept for their food value and guano.

The 2002 FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment mission found that the previous three years of drought had devastated range vegetation and limited feed from grain and crop residues. Livestock numbers are sharply down on 1998 figures (60 percent), especially following the summer and autumn of 2001.

This has led to a scarcity of meat, draught animals and breeding stock and prompted imports of animals and poultry. This poses a serious health risk as Afghanistan has no quarantine facilities and veterinary services and vaccination services have been cut back.

The diseases prevalent in the region include PPR (peste des petits ruminants), foot and mouth, rinderpest, sheep pox, anthrax, Newcastle and gumbora. There are also diseases which can be passed to humans, such as rabies and brucellosis.

    livestock production