The Division of Animal Resources  is headed by a director who serves as the Chief Veterinary Officer.  The Division also engages in capacity-strengthening activities across its units and deploys its county, district, and community-based workforce network for extension services, information dissemination, and reporting. The Division’s work is multidisciplinary and requires both routine and emergency operations. It welcomes potential partnerships that contribute to a healthy animal health sector in Liberia and works in collaboration with local and international partners:

• World Health Organization (WHO)

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• African Union - International Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)

• World Trade Organization (WTO)

• World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH)

• Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Division has several sub-units including:

• Animal Production Unit:

  • This unit ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of government policies on livestock and poultry. It promotes the development of appropriate technologies for managing, breeding, nutrition, and housing livestock, providing energy, protein, and essential nutrients. The unit also addresses broader issues relevant to animal consumption including health, animal welfare, and the environment, raising sustainability concerns. In addition, the Animal Production Unit trains farmers on feed formulation, disease control, and selection of improved animal breeds to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. The unit is headed by a director and assisted by Livestock officers (LOs) at the county level.

• Veterinary Epidemiology Unit 

  • This unit is concerned with the distribution and determinants of animal health, welfare, and production, surveillance, control, and disease reporting. The unit organizes the Division’s approach to problem-solving by confirming the existence and suspicion of an epidemic and verifying the diagnosis in collaboration with the Central Veterinary Laboratory. It also takes responsibility for the conduct of animal disease surveillance and response activities in Liberia, including mass vaccination campaigns for non-zoonotic and zoonotic diseases. The unit is headed by a director and assisted by Animal Surveillance Officers (ASO) assigned in the fifteen counties. Disease reporting includes to MoA, WOAH, FAO, AUIBAR, RAHC, and other partners.

• Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL)

  • This unit provides analytical and diagnostic services to livestock farmers in the agricultural sector. It ensures the production and/or import of quality and safe food products through adherence to international standards and good laboratory practices. The unit also ensures that biosafety and biosecurity measures are crucial in disease control and prevention. There is currently one veterinary laboratory in the country: The Dr. Leon Quist Ledlum Central Veterinary Laboratory, located at the University of Liberia Fendall Campus in Mount Barclay, Montserrado County. Animal samples are transported from the various counties in Liberia for analysis.