Zimbabwe - Pig industry embarks on stockfeed study

Published: April 29, 2004

Source : The Financial Gazette

The Pig Industry Board will soon carry out a study on how to use enzymes to help pigs digest fibre contained in stockfeed, a development expected to restore viability in a sector that has been facing a decline in production over the past two years. Pigs cannot digest the fibre in stockfeed, which is thrown away, and the new study seeks to cut down on costs by ensuring all the feed is consumed. Production has been declining in the industry over the past few years due to persistent disease outbreaks and the government’s land reform programme, which displaced white commercial farmers who were major players in the sector. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country over the past three years, triggered by farm invaders who cut boundary fences at ranches and game parks and exposed livestock to buffaloes, vectors of the disease, resulted in the banning of Zimbabwean beef by the European Union.

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