Experts stress livestock monitoring amid rising health risks in J&K
Srinagar, Feb 10: With cancer cases and antibiotic resistance rising sharply in Jammu and Kashmir, senior officials and livestock experts are flagging serious concerns over food safety and livestock governance, warning that the absence of a robust, localised animal health data system is undermining the region’s One Health framework.
A senior official from the Animal Husbandry Department said that for One Health to make a real impact in Jammu & Kashmir, a comprehensive livestock data ecosystem—particularly for sheep—must exist alongside human health registries.
“A customised monitoring system that records animal health, breeding history, antibiotic use and movement can help detect risks early, much before they translate into hospital emergencies or trigger public outrage,” the official said.
Stressing the need for indigenous solutions, the official added, “A foreign model cannot be replicated here. Our system must be tailored to our geography, consumption patterns and farming practices.”
The warning comes against the backdrop of worrying public health indicators.
Official data show that cancer cases in the Union Territory increased from around 12,726 in 2020 to 14,112 in 2024. Nearly 45.4 per cent of cancers reported in the Kashmir Valley involve the stomach, liver, colon and other digestive organs, intensifying concerns about diet quality and food safety. Alongside this, antibiotic resistance is emerging as a major threat. Scientific studies indicate that methicillin-resistant *Staphylococcus aureus* (MRSA) prevalence in J&K stands at around 55 per cent, meaning more than half of tested infections fail to respond to standard antibiotics.
Health experts caution that these trends are interconnected rather than isolated. Epidemiologists increasingly link rising cancer incidence and antimicrobial resistance to food safety lapses, dietary exposure and livestock management practices. In Kashmir, where mutton is a staple and consumption is among the highest in the country, sheep husbandry occupies a critical position in this public health conversation. The Union Territory consumes nearly 15 lakh sheep annually and imports about 41 per cent of its requirement, spending over Rs 1,400 crore every year on sheep alone. Despite this, meat quality concerns frequently surface, fuelling public anxiety and mistrust.
At the heart of the problem lies an almost complete absence of structured livestock data. Most sheep in J&K are bred and reared intuitively, without systematic records of breeding history, disease incidence, treatments or genetics. Scientific selection of breeding stock remains rare. Although the J&K Livestock Breeding Policy (2019) acknowledges these gaps and calls for livestock development on scientific lines, implementation has remained limited. Even initiatives such as the introduction of higher-yield exotic breeds like Dorper and Texel risk failure without parallel systems for monitoring, identification and disease surveillance. “Without proper data and tracking, even improved flocks can be lost to disease or disappear unrecorded,” the official said, underlining the need for traceability from farm to fork.
Experts argue that data unavailability is not merely a technical lapse but a structural weakness. In the absence of reliable records, authorities struggle to trace disease outbreaks, scientists are unable to study long-term health risks, and farmers are left without evidence-based guidance to improve productivity and genetic quality. While national laws such as the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, the Food Safety and Standards Act, and programmes under the One Health Mission and the National Animal Disease Control Programme provide strong legal backing, enforcement remains reactive without real-time animal-level data.
“Strict laws exist, but without the ability to track animals across the supply chain, action often comes too late,” the official said. “Pathogens, chemical residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria can move silently from animals to humans. By the time they are detected, the system can only respond, not prevent.”
Calling for urgent local, data-driven action, the official stressed that the cost of failing to measure far outweighs the investment needed to build effective monitoring systems. “The foundation of One Health is data,” he said. “Without routine animal identification, treatment logs, breeding histories and movement records, unsafe meat and preventable disease risks will continue to pass unchecked through the system, with serious consequences for public health, farmers’ livelihoods and genetic resources.”
