22 Mar 2020

Investigations by the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security have established that some veterinary practitioners are using human private laboratories for testing animal samples.

Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Dr Edwin Dikoloti told Parliament that some private laboratories did not have the right method for analysing samples other than human blood hence they could not release reliable results for animal samples.

 “These laboratories are not authorised to test animal samples and doing so they are not complying with the standard protocol, therefore, the results from the private laboratories cannot be trusted by the public,” he said.

The minister added that action would be taken against veterinary practitioners who were using unauthorised private laboratories for testing of animal samples by Botswana Veterinary Council.

Dr Dikoloti also noted that “the Botswana National Veterinary Laboratory (BNLV) has the capacity for testing many diseases and is the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) recognised reference laboratory for Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) and collaboration centre for Newcastle and Avian Influenza diagnoses.”

Dr Dikoloti noted that most laboratories did not carry out all tests but rather focused and specialised in a few specific tests and became centres of excellence.

He said where capacity was lacking, BNVL subcontracted testing to international reference laboratories for disease diagnosis.

In addition, he said BNVL had the capacity to run tests for blood cell count, and also used reagents that tested up to 300 samples, but that laboratories  received less than 10 samples in a week. He added that it was not yet possible to release results within one to two days as samples were accumulated and tested on a weekly basis to save reagents costs.

He pointed out that it was mandatory for all animal samples to be tested at BNVL or any laboratory authorised by the director of Veterinary Services, citing Botswana Vaccine Institute reference laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease and Botswana Meat Commission food safety and quality control laboratory.

“My ministry has the requirement that all samples to be tested outside Botswana should have an export permit issued by the competent authority,” he said.

Dr Dikoloti noted that the ministry had veterinary practitioners at headquarters who issued permits for pathological samples and some at BNVL who inspected the samples for packaging and cold chain compliance.

“The process is very necessary and will be reviewed if the private samples improve in quality,” he said.

Dr Dikoloti highlighted that BNVL was mandated to carry out testing for animal disease diagnosis and surveillance and that the Department of Veterinary Services conducted annual disease surveillance according to the disease surveillance plan.

He said the surveillance plan was not only a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) requirement for confirmation of disease freedom status, but was also the basis for early warning system from which the farmers stood to benefit.

Member of Parliament for Jwaneng-Mabutsane, Mr Mephato Reatile wanted to know if the NVL had the capacity to provide a list of the various diseases that could be detected by the laboratory and if the NVL had the capacity to test simple disease liver, kidney and white blood cells and to release results within a day or two.

He also wanted to know how many times the laboratory ran tests countrywide in a year to detect any disease so that they could send an early warning to farmers based on the laboratory results.

ENDs