After the appearance of the disease called “Rift Valley Fever” which attacks cattle and sheep in Burundi, butchers indicate that they are working at a loss.
Monday 11 a.m. In the Kinama market, the stalls reserved for the sale of meat are almost empty, the butchers are ”idle” and customers are trickling in. Same situation at the market called “Kwa Siyoni”.
Butchers deplore the consequences they suffer as a result of this disease. One of them revealed to us that he manages to earn 20 thousand BIF per day and that currently he cannot even have 5 thousand BIF in profit.
According to him, people do not come to buy meat for fear of being infected with this disease. “Before, we used to sell at least 8 cows a day, but nowadays, selling a cow is not easy. The townspeople have heard that this disease even attacks people and have completely given up eating cow or goat meat,” he told us.
Abdoul, another butcher met at the market called “Kwa Siyoni” says he is no longer able to feed his family: “I have been doing this job for 10 years, this is the first time that I have lacked what to feed my family when I presented myself at the work. Let the government act as soon as possible! »
Most of these butchers are asking for a vaccine as soon as possible to curb this Rift Valley fever before it is too late in view of the consequences caused by this disease.
As of May 24, the country has recorded 464 cases of cows with Rift Valley fever disease. There were already 113 deaths from this disease. No improvement can be reported so far, indicated the Director of Animal Health within the Ministry in charge of Livestock.
Source: IWACU Burundi