THE Northern Province regional livestock disease control laboratory is set for completion next month.
Northern Province Fisheries and Livestock Coordinator Joseph Chiti said construction works on the laboratory has reached 80 per cent.
Mr Chiti was optimistic that the facility was likely to be handed over to the government by February this year if the contractor continued moving at the same pace.
He expressed happiness with the works done so far by the contractor, Zoncor Investment Limited.
Mr Chiti said that once complete, the K3.1 million laboratory project will help improve the analysis of livestock diseases in Muchinga, Northern and Luapula Provinces.
He said that in the past, the department used to face challenges in handling animal disease-related cases.
He said the laboratory would have a genetics, parasitology and bacteriology sections.
Mr Chiti said this will further reduce the cost of combating animal diseases since the laboratory would have experts readily available to carry out diseases analysis.
Currently, samples of animal diseases have to be transported from Northern, Muchinga and Luapula Provinces for analysis in Lusaka.
He called on livestock farmers in the area to take advantage of the facility.—ZANIS
