Kathmandu, September 6

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), in coordination with the District Administration Office (DAO) and District Veterinary Office (DVO), will be checking the health of goats and sheep from September 18 targeting goats that arrive in Kathmandu Valley for Dashain.

As per KMC, a team of experts comprising members from KMC, DAO and DVO has been formed who will be deployed in major places of the Valley like Kalanki, Koteshwor, Bagbazar and Bijulibazar, among others, to check the health of goats and sheep. Goats for Dashain are sold in the Valley especially from these four places as identified by KMC.

The expert team will check the fitness of goats and categorise them as ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ at the spots where the goats are kept for sale, according to KMC officials. As per KMC, expert team will apply red paint on horns of unhealthy goats and sheep while healthy goats and sheep will have their horns painted in blue.

“Such examination is required to assure that consumers during Dashain are able to consume healthy goats and sheep. We will carry out such examinations of livestock until Ghatasthapana (September 21),” said Gyanendra Karki, spokesperson for KMC.

The KMC had examined the health of more than 40,000 goats and sheep in Kathmandu Valley during last year’s Dashain.

As the rate of consumption of mutton is high during Dashain, KMC has suspected that traders might even supply unhealthy livestock in the market.

However, traders have said that they have been supplying only healthy livestock in the market every Dashain. “A majority of livestock supplied during Dashain is healthy. In case some livestock get sick, we ourselves do not sell them to consumers,” claimed Deepak Thapa, president of the Nepal Livestock Traders Association.

Traders have planned to supply more than 50,000 goats and sheep in Kathmandu Valley during Dashain this year. However, they have been saying that the price of live goats would be dearer this Dashain as compared to last year due to increased transportation cost and rise in price of goats in the Indian market — the major source of goat for Nepal.

Traders had sold goats at an average of Rs 470 per kg last Dashain.