BUJUMBURA, January 24th (ABP) – Artificial insemination is one of the practices that can improve production in cow farming. This was disclosed on Thursday, January 23, 2025 by Rosalie Ntahonsigaye, communal veterinary technician of Bugarama.
Ntahonsigaye explained that this method consists of artificially placing sperm from the breeding bull in the genital tract of the cow in natural heat or induced by the injection of hormones (synchronization), in order to have under normal conditions one or two calves in nine months. This method of fertilization is very different from the traditional one, she stressed, because the natural method waits until the cow is naturally in heat to be fertilized by the bull.
Veterinary technician Ntahonsigaye indicated that, sometimes, the natural method has some drawbacks such as infertility and lack of heat in the cow two years or more after parturition.
In the case of artificial insemination, monitoring is easy because the condition of the cow is known, said Ntahonsigaye. “We ask the government to train several technicians to serve the people from different localities in the country. It would also be effective to put in place a strategy to facilitate the task of farmers to obtain the bull’s hormones,” Ntahonsigaye suggested.
“We plan when we want to have calves. This allows us to increase milk production as well as meat,” announced Michel Ntahombaye, one of the users of artificial insemination. “The hormones are imported from abroad, they are expensive, not just anyone can obtain them,” she added. Ntahombaye testified that this method of artificial insemination is very effective because, according to him, it is safe and allows the control of livestock.