Veterinary Interns from Gaza Visit ZK Premier Dairies for Practical Exposure to Modern Dairy Farming in Pakistan

LAHORE: A group of veterinary intern students from Gaza, Palestine, visited ZK Premier Dairies Pvt. Ltd. as part of their clinical training programme being conducted in collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Riphah International University, through its Riphah College of Veterinary Sciences.

The visit provided the Palestinian veterinary interns with direct exposure to modern commercial dairy farming and an opportunity to observe how veterinary medicine, herd health, reproduction, nutrition and farm management are integrated in a large-scale dairy operation.

The visiting students included Roba, Mohammad, Yazan Adeeb and Ahmad. They were accompanied by Dr. Attia Urooj, Lecturer in Theriogenology, and Dr. Fahd Haseeb, Lecturer in Medicine, from Riphah College of Veterinary Sciences.

The educational engagement was also supported by Dr. Fazal, Technical Sales Manager associated with Biochem. His involvement added an industry perspective to the visit and complemented the academic and farm-based interaction provided to the students.

According to information shared regarding the visit, the interns were taken through different operational areas of ZK Premier Dairies, where they observed calf management, herd health programmes, reproductive management, rotary milking parlour operations, feeding and nutrition management, and routine dairy herd operations.

The students were introduced to calf and young-stock management practices and were able to observe how the health, nutrition, housing and development of young animals are managed as part of building productive replacement stock for a commercial dairy herd.

They also gained practical exposure to herd-health management and observed how veterinary care on a modern dairy farm extends beyond the treatment of individual animals to include disease prevention, health monitoring, reproductive performance, nutrition, biosecurity and overall herd productivity.

Reproductive management formed another important part of the visit. The students were able to relate their academic training in theriogenology and veterinary medicine to practical fertility and herd-reproduction management under commercial farm conditions.

The delegation also observed the farm’s rotary milking parlour and was briefed on organised milking operations, movement of animals through the system, hygiene, milk handling and the use of mechanisation in managing larger dairy herds.

ZK Premier Dairies lists modern dairy equipment at its operation including a DeLaval Rotary Milking Parlour E-500, milk filtration and instant chilling systems, TMR mixers and feeders, automatic hay choppers, grain grinders, free stalls and manure-management systems.

The farm is located at Mudwala Khurd, Sheikhupura, Punjab, along the Lahore-Sheikhupura industrial corridor. According to the company’s official profile, ZK Premier Dairies is a project of Premier Group of Companies and has been developed as a large dairy and breeding operation with an associated feed mill. The company states that the project has the capacity to produce approximately 50,000 litres of hygienic milk per day from imported dairy cattle.

Its location and commercial-scale infrastructure provided the visiting students with an opportunity to see dairy production in an environment where animal health, feeding, reproduction, milking technology and operational management are handled as parts of one integrated production system.

Feeding and nutrition management was also covered during the visit. The students observed the role of organised feeding systems and received practical exposure to the relationship between nutrition, milk production, reproductive efficiency, body condition, health and overall dairy performance.

Dr. Naveed Anjum, General Manager of ZK Premier Dairies, briefed the students on the farm’s technical and management systems and shared practical insights into modern dairy farming and developments taking place within Pakistan’s commercial dairy sector.

The visit was organised within the broader clinical-training framework of Riphah College of Veterinary Sciences, which places emphasis on practical veterinary skills, animal-health services, livestock and poultry farm management, professional training and interaction with the livestock sector.

The participation of Riphah faculty members during the visit was important in connecting the observations made at the commercial farm with the students’ veterinary education. It enabled the interns to discuss practical situations in the context of medicine, reproduction, preventive health and farm management rather than treating the visit as a general farm tour.

As part of this approach, the Palestinian interns are being provided with broader professional exposure through different practical visits and engagements during their training period. The objective is to enable them to interact with different veterinary, livestock and professional environments and to understand how veterinary knowledge is applied across different areas of animal-health and production practice.

No specific future institution or visit schedule has been publicly announced in the information available for this programme, but the continuing training approach involves exposing the students to different practical settings rather than limiting their experience to a single institutional or farm visit.

The collaboration also reflects the role that universities, commercial farms and animal-health and nutrition professionals can play together in veterinary training. In this visit, Riphah College of Veterinary Sciences provided the academic and clinical-training framework, ZK Premier Dairies served as the host commercial dairy farm, while Dr. Fazal’s participation provided additional professional and industry engagement.

This distinction is important because each stakeholder contributed to a different component of the learning experience. ZK Premier Dairies provided access to its farm infrastructure and management systems, Riphah faculty accompanied and academically engaged the students, while Dr. Fazal supported the visit through his professional association and interaction with the delegation.

For the veterinary interns from Gaza, the visit provided an opportunity to move beyond classroom-based learning and observe the practical relationship between animal health, reproduction, nutrition, milk production, farm technology and management under commercial conditions.

International veterinary training of this nature can also contribute to professional knowledge exchange by allowing students to observe livestock systems outside their own country and interact with veterinarians, academics and industry professionals working under different production conditions.

ZK Premier Dairies expressed its best wishes to the Palestinian students and hoped that the experience gained during the visit would contribute positively to their academic development and future professional careers.

The ongoing clinical and professional exposure being facilitated for the students is expected to provide them with a broader understanding of veterinary practice and livestock production, while strengthening academic and professional interaction between the visiting Palestinian students and Pakistan’s veterinary and livestock sector.