Build toilets to curb measles � Maseko

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday February 21, 2014 15:51

 

At a press conference in Lobatse on Wednesday, Botswana Meat Commission’s (BMC) head of compliance Boitumelo Maseko said the organisation had lost P73 million due to measles last year, which had affected most communal farmers.

Maseko said that due to the disease, they could not sell their meat to the European (EU) market costing BMC greatly as they had to offload it to other countries cheaply after treating it in the cold room for a few days.

She said more farmers must be urged to build toilets as meat diagnosed with measles is costly to process and cannot be sold to the lucrative EU market.

Measles outbreak is caused by drought, human and animal related interaction. She said that the disease has increased, as cattle posts are settlements with very poor sanitary facilities.

She said that measles is caused by human waste that cattle consume when grazing, particularly those from communal areas. People get it from animals by eating meat of affected cattle.

Communal farmers are said to own 90 percent of cattle in the country.

Maseko said BMC would soon implement a meat inspection framework, as the organisation is several years behind other countries in that regard.  Maseko also said to avoid the measles households should cook meat at 70 Degrees Celsius for two minutes. She also advised that people should desist from using human waste to fertilise grazing land.

On another note, Maseko said even though local farmers had been given an opportunity to sell their live cattle to neighbouring countries such as Angola, Zambia and South Africa last year December, these countries had shown interest as it was expensive for individuals to sell their livestock outside the country due to logistic challenges.

She said that for one to be able to sell their cattle they had to seek import permits, transport animals, and meet other compliances, which was costly to an individual than a company.

She said that this made farmers opt to sell their cattle to BMC instead as it saved them these expenses.