Paper fodder gets nod
An experiment in the north, using cardboard as a bulk basis for animal fodder, has been approved after great success was achieved.
Cardboard-based fodder for ruminants has received a green light from the country's animal health division, after a post-mortem was conducted on a goat that was fed with the new feed since April last year.
Emmanuel Mateus, the animal health technician in the animal disease control division under the ministry of agriculture water and forestry, said last week a state veterinarian from Outapi conducted the post-mortem under their supervision, and the animal's condition was found to be 100% normal.
“There was no animal health abnormality found in reference to the feed that was provided to the animal. It was just perfect, like an animal that was fed with any other prescribed feed,” Matheus said.
He said no toxic substance was found that could be harmful to animal or human health.
“Our unit has been monitoring this study since its inception and we observed that everything used has gone through laboratory tests or evaluation. If we could have observed anything that could be harmful to animal or human health this research could have been closed already,” he says.
On Friday one of the two goats that has been fed with the new animal feed from discarded cardboard boxes at Oshikuku in the Omusati Region was slaughtered under the supervision of the state veterinarian and the animal health control unit, so that a post-mortem could be conducted.
The meat was also cooked and given to community members to test. Since April last year, Roderick Haraseb, a food technologist has been conducting a study on manufacturing animal feed from discarded cardboard boxes. The study is said to have elicited positive responses from South African laboratories.
On Friday Haraseb said that some of the meat samples will be sent to micro laboratories in Cape Town for nutritional value observations.
“So far we are pleased by the progress. After we send meat samples to Cape Town we will just be waiting for advises on the nutritional component. Around August, when the drought season starts, we will give some feed samples to the local farmers to find out how their animals are reacting. We are almost at the end of the study,” Haraseb said.
He said the study was being conducted since April last year, with the assistance of four local youth.
The study is conducted on two control groups, one with animals strictly fed with grass and lucerne, while the other receives the new feed only. These animals are regularly weighed to monitor the effects, and whether the product is working or not.
“For six months, from the end of April to October last year, we had been strictly feeding two cows and two goats with grass and lucerne and the other two cows and two goats with the new feed only. From the end of October last year until now have swopped the two groups,” Haraseb said.
The chief veterinarian for the north-west division, Dr Kennedy Shoombe, said once the study finds the product to be viable, a factory manufacturing animal feed from cardboard boxes will be established at Oshikuku.
Haraseb, a food technology graduate from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said the remaining animals are destined for organoleptic analysis, to determine their meat and milk quality.
He said that the research started under the supervision of a state veterinarian and is being funded and technically supported by the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) of the ministry of urban and rural development.
ILENI NANDJATO
Emmanuel Mateus, the animal health technician in the animal disease control division under the ministry of agriculture water and forestry, said last week a state veterinarian from Outapi conducted the post-mortem under their supervision, and the animal's condition was found to be 100% normal.
“There was no animal health abnormality found in reference to the feed that was provided to the animal. It was just perfect, like an animal that was fed with any other prescribed feed,” Matheus said.
He said no toxic substance was found that could be harmful to animal or human health.
“Our unit has been monitoring this study since its inception and we observed that everything used has gone through laboratory tests or evaluation. If we could have observed anything that could be harmful to animal or human health this research could have been closed already,” he says.
On Friday one of the two goats that has been fed with the new animal feed from discarded cardboard boxes at Oshikuku in the Omusati Region was slaughtered under the supervision of the state veterinarian and the animal health control unit, so that a post-mortem could be conducted.
The meat was also cooked and given to community members to test. Since April last year, Roderick Haraseb, a food technologist has been conducting a study on manufacturing animal feed from discarded cardboard boxes. The study is said to have elicited positive responses from South African laboratories.
On Friday Haraseb said that some of the meat samples will be sent to micro laboratories in Cape Town for nutritional value observations.
“So far we are pleased by the progress. After we send meat samples to Cape Town we will just be waiting for advises on the nutritional component. Around August, when the drought season starts, we will give some feed samples to the local farmers to find out how their animals are reacting. We are almost at the end of the study,” Haraseb said.
He said the study was being conducted since April last year, with the assistance of four local youth.
The study is conducted on two control groups, one with animals strictly fed with grass and lucerne, while the other receives the new feed only. These animals are regularly weighed to monitor the effects, and whether the product is working or not.
“For six months, from the end of April to October last year, we had been strictly feeding two cows and two goats with grass and lucerne and the other two cows and two goats with the new feed only. From the end of October last year until now have swopped the two groups,” Haraseb said.
The chief veterinarian for the north-west division, Dr Kennedy Shoombe, said once the study finds the product to be viable, a factory manufacturing animal feed from cardboard boxes will be established at Oshikuku.
Haraseb, a food technology graduate from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said the remaining animals are destined for organoleptic analysis, to determine their meat and milk quality.
He said that the research started under the supervision of a state veterinarian and is being funded and technically supported by the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) of the ministry of urban and rural development.
ILENI NANDJATO
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