Mzuzu residents risk consuming contaminated pork

Some vendors in Mzuzu City continue selling uninspected meat, six months after the Mzuzu Agricultural Development Division (ADD) issued a warning on African swine fever and asked residents to desist from selling or consuming uncertified pork.

The situation has been compounded by the closing down of the only certified pork market and abattoir at Luwinga Township about two years ago due to water problems.

Some residents have revealed that some vendors slaughter the pigs in their residential areas without inspection.

This, however, is in contrast to what Mzuzu ADD livestock development officer Jacob Mwasinga said in a recent interview. He said inspection officers from his office conduct daily meat and pork inspection exercises in various locations across the city.

He said the ADD directed the shutdown of the city’s sole pig abattoir following the proprietors’ (Mzuzu Livestock Cooperative’s) failure to pay water bills it owed Northern Region Water Board (NRWB).

“We facilitated closure of the pig market and abattoir because there is no way we would have allowed the slaughter house to operate without a water source,” he said.

However, Mwasinga was at pains to explain how his office regulates slaughtering of pigs at a time when any vendor can slaughter pigs anywhere.

In April this year, Mzuzu ADD announced that over 200 pigs had died of African swine fever at Ekwendeni in Mzimba North alone and appealed to residents to refrain from purchasing pork from undesignated places. n