JUMADAL THANI 20 1430 A.H.
THURSDAY JUNE, 18 2009
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Unhygienic abattoirs and public health
By Yomi Adeleye
A wealthy industrialist/politician (names withheld) celebrated his 70th birthday recently with a lot to drink and eat. Before the end of the carnival-like celebration, many of the guests were already in hospital after complaining of severe stomachache.
Most were vomiting while others were excreting. The panicky celebrant dubbed the occurrence sabotage and blamed his political and business rivals as being out to tarnish his image.
However, food poisoning or gastroenteritis was later identified as being responsible. Laboratory analysis of the victims’ vomit showed that they had eaten unhygienic meat and poultry.
The source of the contamination was then traced to the unhygienic abattoir where the cows, rams and birds served at the feast were slaughtered and processed.
The abattoir used by the butchers is not only described as illegal but unhygienic by health workers.
Slaughter wastes, dung and slurry litter the place. Its source of water supply is a small stream with all sorts of pollutants, including slaughter wastes.
Meadows R. (1995), in his book titled “Livestock Legacy: Environmental Health Perspectives”, stated that “while the slaughtering of animals results in meat supply and useful by-products like leather and skin, experts warn that livestock waste spills can introduce enteric pathogens and excess nutrients into surface waters and can also contaminate ground waters”.
In the same vein, Abiola. S.S (1995), in his “Assessment of Abattoir and Slaughter Slab Operation in Oyo State”, condemned the environmental impact and public health implication of the unhygienic sanitary conditions of most abattoirs in Ibadan.
”At the abattoir, ante-mortem examination is nil as animals are off-loaded and conveyed straight to the slaughter halls. Animals are then slaughtered -- using the Muslim technique of decapitation -- on the bare floor with skinning or burning of the carcasses commencing on the same spot”.
According to Abiola, evisceration and dressing are done right on the floor in the slaughter hall.
“With inadequate slaughtering and disposal facilities, the abattoir has also become a source of infection and pollution, attracting domestic and wild carnivores, rodents, and flies, which are vectors of diseases.
”The area is rampant with filth and scattered rubbish, which is left uncollected, apart from the blood draining trenches, through which the filth is scattered rather than eliminated”.
Abiola noted that “under tropical conditions, food of animal origin tends to deteriorate more rapidly and become an important vehicle for gastrointestinal infections, thereby endangering consumer’s health”.
He added that transport facilities for meat are often inadequate and unhygienic.
About 14 years after Abiola’s report, the condition of abattoirs and slaughter slabs in most part of Nigeria remain the same, if not worse.
In Lagos, most abattoirs are in a sorry state. Lagosians have become concerned about the situation and this has led to increasing pressure on the state government to ensure substantial hygiene in animal killing and distribution in the state.
In apparent reaction to the pressure, agents of state recently demolished an illegal slaughter slab at Ajilogo Market in the Mile 12 area of Lagos metropolis.
Mr Olusegun Onamuti, Permanent Secretary, Lagos state Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, says the government will do all within the law to protect the lives of its citizens.
He discloses that there are only eight approved slaughter slabs in the state, adding that there have been several warnings and enlightenment campaigns against the operation of illegal slabs and transporting of meat through unhygienic means.
A concerned Lagos resident, Mr Frank Ijaduola, expresses fear at the condition of even the modern abattoir and Lairage at Oko Oba, Agege in Lagos.
“Stench has taken over the vicinity as a result of improper management of slaughter wastes such as blood, dung, slurry, bones, horns, hair and aborted fetuses, all of which are left scattered rather than eliminated”, Ijaduola laments.
A female lawyer and Lagos resident, Ms Jessy Akpan, blames the situation of the abattoirs on the usual Nigerian way of doing things without regard to laid down regulations.
``I wonder why our people have refused to change from the old ways of doing things,” Akpan says.
She is worried that in spite of the government effort toward providing a safer and hygienic means of transporting meat with “Eko Meat Van”, some butchers still use motorcycles and open trucks to convey meat to the markets for sale.
“Eko Meat Van” is a fleet of pick-up vans launched by the Lagos State government solely to transport meat and their products to the markets from abattoirs.
According to Akpan, conveying meat in open trucks is unwholesome, barbaric and embarrassing to a nation that prides itself as the giant of Africa.
Research findings have also shown that abattoirs are frequently located near urban centers, in spite of their penchant for generating enormous waste.
Waste from slaughter houses are also often channelled into streams and rivers or simply washed into open drains, untreated. Yet, most of the abattoirs depend on wells and streams for water.
This practice, experts say, will introduce enteric pathogens and excess nutrients into surface water and also percolate into the underlying aquifers to contaminate wells that serve the dual purpose of drinking water as well as for dressing the animals slaughtered in the area.
Livestock waste contamination can increase the level of nitrates in ground water, which causes methemoglobinemia or “blue baby syndrome”. It means high nitrate ingestion by babies via contaminated drinking water, leading to short supply of oxygen to their brains and ultimately, death.
Animal wastes from abattoirs -- that are not properly disposed of -- are also known to produce methane, thereby intensifying the greenhouse effect.
Experts agree that the good health of the animals to be slaughtered is as important as the condition of the slaughterhouses. This is even more important as a swine flu epidemic is still raging in many parts of the world.
Bird flu or avian influenza has remained a health concern all over the world for several years. Both swine flu and bird flu have continued to kill human beings. Hence, the need for veterinary officials to certify animals fit before they are slaughtered for human consumption.
Experts advise that each abattoir should have some necessary standard equipment -- slaughtering machines, skinning machines, cold rooms and changing rooms for workers.
They also plead that water to be used in processing the carcasses should be treated to ensure that pollutants and other impurities do not get into meat products.
The experts agree that waste management should be given priority attention at abattoirs to ensure that both the environment and the products produced there would not serve as vectors for diseases.
In addition, the transportation of meat and other animal products from abattoirs to markets should be done in dedicated vans that will protect them from infection.
Ajoke Adeola, a Lagos based health worker noted that the government still has a lot to do in the area of ensuring standards in abattoir operations.
She said that the health authorities must wake up to the challenge of regulating the operations of abattoirs.
``Illegal abattoirs abound in all parts of the country and their activities are inimical to public health,” say Adeola.
The average Nigerian expects that government -- at all tiers — will look critically and urgently into the issue of sub-standard and unhygienic abattoirs nationwide.
This is with a view to regularizing their operations and ensuring that
only those that meet basic standards of hygiene are allowed to remain in operation.
(NAN Fearture)
