diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index fa7f48abf00347031262494dae01d71f528633ca..05c66ad8c153995dfeafe526bb91d9bb8f2a33c5 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ before_install:
     - make prefix=$ENSDIR/share/htslib install
     - export HTSLIB_DIR=$(pwd -P)
     - cd $ENSDIR/ensembl-variation/C_code/
+    - make
     - make install
     - cd $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR