The Ministry of Agriculture is planning to start slaughtering 21,000 goats in the North East in the coming days in a bid to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease in the area.
This was disclosed by the MoA’s Principal Public Relations Officer, Geoffrey Pheko, who is currently amongst the officers coordinating the operation.
“We are making the final preparations as we speak and will start as soon as we complete the preparations,” he said.
Pheko said that the start of operations was delayed by difficulties in digging a place where the goats will be buried because of the breakdown of the excavating machines. He revealed that, so far, they had collected 2,489 goats from farmers and they will start slaughtering them soon.
Pheko said that, besides their teams of veterinary officers, they are also working with Local Government counselors who are counseling the farmers whose goats will be slaughtered.
“These farmers have had their cattle slaughtered recently in a bid to, again control the spread of foot and mouth, and now it is their goats. This is a sad situation that is why we have seen it fit to bring along counselors so that they can counsel them,” he said.
Pheko said that the operation is expected to take a month but might take longer if things do not go as planned.
All the farmers will be compensated in kind after the operation meaning that they will be given all their goats back.
Asked if there will be enough goats locally to restock Pheko said, “We hope so.”
