Quackery in Veterinary Care: A Serious Threat to Animal Health

Credit By: DR. AAQIB RASHID

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24 Apr 2026

Do animals talk? A question that is asked to me and to every other veterinarian. The answer is a modest, “Yes, animals do talk only if you have the ears to listen and a heart to feel.” The thing about the Veterinary profession that makes it unique is that there is always more to it than what actually meets the eye. Calling it a misunderstood profession might be an exaggeration, but calling it a less understood profession isn't!

A veterinary professional is a jack of all trades and, contrary to the popular saying, is actually a master of all. A veterinarian is a clinician, a surgeon, a radiologist, an extension worker, a public health expert - an all-in-one package. A veterinary professional is always something more than what the common notion or popular belief is. Veterinarians are central to ensuring food safety and food security. A holistic and durable food safety and food security set-up cannot be imagined or achieved without the involvement of veterinarians, who are the guardians of the health and food.

It is no secret that over the last few decades, the livestock sector in India has flourished with successive governments paying keen attention to this sector. The story of Jammu and Kashmir is no different. There has been a transformation of dairy animals as well as the dairy sector. The transformation of animals has happened in terms of genetics, wherein low-producing animals have been upgraded to high-producing ones. This has, in turn, led to higher production per animal, greatly improving returns from this sector.

However, the dairy boom in Jammu and Kashmir has taken new heights over the past few years, thanks to the pro-farmer, beneficiary-oriented government initiatives, which have ensured that even the farmers last in line have benefited in one way or another. While the introduction of the National Artificial Insemination Programme has ensured free-of-cost Artificial Insemination services at farmers' doorsteps, greatly uplifting the genetic makeup of animals, the launch of the National Animal Disease Control Programme has resulted in timely vaccination, ensuring proactive prophylaxis.

On one hand, the commencement of the Integrated Dairy Development Scheme has catered to the needs of the small and medium-scale farmers by ensuring sustainable livelihood opportunities, while on the other hand, the implementation of the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme has been a game-changer as far as agriculture and allied sectors are concerned. These initiatives have been key drivers of progress in the livestock sector and have not only created self-employment opportunities but have also played a key role in ensuring food security.

We are well past the times when animal rearing was subsistence and are living in times where it is, to a large extent, commercial. A dairy animal in the farmer's shed is not merely an animal eating, ruminating and defecating. It is an employee and in many households the only earning member of the family. This was not the case some time ago.

The relentless efforts of the veterinary workforce have ensured that animal rearing has improved the income and living standards of livestock farmers. The dynamics of livestock keeping and rearing have changed when it comes to rearing animals for food and as a source of livelihood. Giant leaps have been taken in terms of research and implementation of that research at the grassroots levels. Government initiatives with respect to the implementation of beneficiary-oriented schemes have ensured that the benefits are percolated to the bottom of the social chain and to the last mile.

While the efforts of researchers in the labs and of the doctors in the field have fructified, and it is important to acknowledge the progress made, it is equally or in fact more important to address the challenges this progress faces. If they are left unaddressed, they have the potential to nullify the efforts of the dedicated workforce working tirelessly day in and day out.

One of the most overlooked but threatening challenges is that of quackery. A quack, as irritating as the word itself, is like a leech, a parasite that feeds on the emotions and bleeds a poor farmer. This menace of Quackery has plagued the veterinary profession over the years. While Quackery is prevalent in other professions too, its scale in veterinary practice is massive.

Not only does Quackery undermine the professionalism that the veterinary profession demands, but it also compromises the health and welfare aspects of both humans and animals. Quackery, in addition to compromising on animal health and animal welfare, also takes a toll on the farmer's income due to misdiagnosis, increased cost of treatment and increased duration of the disease, decreasing the overall returns from animals.

Quackery, the malpractice beyond the white coat, unfortunately, is not restricted to cow sheds and dairy farms, but social media has been utilised as a tool to promote it, where self-proclaimed experts (who can not properly pronounce the names of medicines) lecture farmers about ‘magical treatment strategies’.

Treatment of animals requires a delicate balance of knowledge, expertise, emotions and motives. While Veterinary professionals focus on the implementation of these characteristics to ultimately bring the animal back into a healthy state, prioritising animal and farmer welfare, quacks, on the other hand, being driven by a profit-motive rely on second hand, word of mouth, blind knowledge and miraculous healing at the cost of animal welfare and farmer's blood and sweat.

To put things into perspective, the use of antimicrobial drugs in food animals without proper knowledge comes with its own serious disadvantages. The prime example of such predicaments is the challenge of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is no less than a ticking time bomb. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has largely contributed to a meteoric rise in resistance.

One of the reasons for AMR is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animals, which are used as food by humans. Residues of such drugs after reaching the human body increase the threshold of the effective dose of a particular medication, and over time, the medicine no longer remains effective. As long as the deceptive practice of quackery persists, the sword of antimicrobial resistance will hang over the heads of humans. Quackery is a serious issue, but what is astonishing is the fact that Quackery in the veterinary profession is brushed aside, rather casually.

While to a large extent, due to continuous efforts of the veterinary workforce, a shift has been noticed over time where farmers have become increasingly aware about the importance of proper treatment of their animals, a large section of the livestock rearing community still relies on the quacks, the self-proclaimed doctors.

It is, therefore, important to strengthen the veterinary profession in terms of the availability of a workforce that works on the grassroots and to plug the dearth of the skilled workforce. Stringent measures against quackery must be put in place to ensure that the evil practice is obliterated for the overall well-being of humans and animals and to ensure that the efforts of the government and those of veterinary professionals on the ground are not squandered.

In order to realise the vision of doubling the income of livestock farmers and to ensure profitability, it is imperative that concrete steps are taken towards addressing the issue of quackery. It is high time that the issue is not brushed aside casually and that serious attention is paid to it. This will not only ensure animal well-being but also go a long way in paving the way towards the well-being of humans.

As always, veterinarians will continue to serve the profession relentlessly like true warriors, prioritising animal and human welfare. One can always count on veterinarians to act as guardians of food and health. That is the spirit of veterinarians – enduring and undying!

(The Author is working as a veterinary assistant surgeon, Government of UT of J&K. Feedback:drsofiaaqib5624@gmail.com)