24 Feb 2019

The Department of Veterinary Services in Ghanzi District has decided to outsource its BAITS services to the youth to fast track service delivery.

 The identified youth would be expected to operate BAITS cafés with effect from April.

 Speaking during the Ghanzi District stakeholder BAITS training workshop recently, principal veterinary officer, Dr Neverson Sithole said the outsourcing started last November in the other districts, and that Ghanzi District was left behind due to a shortage of BAITS agents. He, however, promised farmers that the district would commence the outsourcing in April since they had identified six BAITS agents.

Dr Sithole said out of the six agents, two would be based in the township while the rest would be based in settlements around Ghanzi. 

He explained that since the agents would be working as extension veterinary offices, his office would concentrate on doing farm audits monthly.

He stated that BAITS was introduced to identify and trace animals and to comply with the European Union market where the country was selling its beef.  

Dr Sithole said the traceability system led to the establishment of BAITS regulations as a requirement of the EU market.

He said record keeping was important for proper identification of animals, urging farmers to ensure that their animals were branded from three months.

Dr Sithole said it was worrisome that farmers did not dispose of animals that they had sold or those that died, saying it led to inaccurate information.

He urged farmers to report clinical cases to his department as information was needed for stakeholder engagement and record keeping.

Principal veterinary officer, Mr Kgosietsile Bimbo said any loss of animal identification should be reported to the department and the police, and urged farmers to replace the lost ear tags rather than buying new ones as the information was already available.

Mr Bimbo urged farmers to reframe from buying ear tags in bulk and stockpiling them, as it denied other farmers to buy ear tags.

He said the department director may restrict the farmer from buying the tags taking into account the actual need of the farmer.

He said the ear tagging procedure had to be followed as the analogue tag goes to the right and the digital one goes to the left.

He added that all ear tags for animals born in Botswana should be yellow and imported animals should bear red ear tags.   

For their part, farmers pleaded with the department management to provide resources to extension agents so that they could help farmers whenever the need arises.

They said it had taken a long time since government had vaccinated their animals against anthrax which they said was deadly.

Dr Sithole said they had engaged 10 temporary scientific officers to address staff shortage. ENDS