ABATTOIRS AND PUBLIC HEALTH  

 Abattoirs are in terrible shape and constitute serious health risk

The health of citizens should concern every responsible and responsive government, especially when it comes to what they daily consume. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many parts of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Last week, residents of Gwagwalada local government area of FCT decried the unhygienic means of transporting meat from abattoirs to their markets. Since this is a problem that is national, health authorities should be concerned. Using wheelbarrows, motorbikes and rickety vehicles speak to the increasing health hazards in consuming the beef prepared in many parts of the country. Besides, most of the abattoirs are in unacceptable condition, with the beef almost always left in open spaces that attract all kinds of contamination.   

On several occasions on this page, we have had course to express serious concerns over the manner of producing, handling, and transporting beef from abattoirs to the different points of sale across Nigeria because they are inimical to the health of the final consumers. And there appears to be no credible step by the authorities to arrest the problem. This may also explain why members of the Nigerian business and political elites, as studies have shown, prefer imported, frozen poultry products, even when no one can also guarantee the safety of these imported products.  

Except Lagos and few states, which have made remarkable efforts towards ensuring a healthy and hygienic abattoir condition by upgrading some of their abattoirs over the year to suit their laws, such facilities stink in many of the states, where butchers are still killing cows and preparing carcasses of their meat on the wet, dirty, muddy floor. In many of these abattoirs across Nigeria, the vicinity is littered with heaps of stinking waste materials. In fact, in most cases, it is almost as if the abattoir is synonymous with waste.  

Meanwhile, after these animals are slaughtered, the fur is burnt off in the open, using firewood and lorry tyres, each producing smoke continuously on daily basis. These tyres constitute the greater part of the fuel. Apart from the hazard it poses to the health of consumers, the practice also produces lots of smoke that pollutes the area. The environmental implication of such practice is better imagined. In almost all, the facilities of these abattoirs are generally being operated under unhygienic conditions, mainly due to lack of certain basic amenities.  

We therefore reinstate our position that the manner in which animal carcasses are handled during slaughter, loading and transportation from the abattoir to various points of sale must change.  Indeed, almost as a matter of routine, majority of the butchers convey their meat on bicycles, motorised tricycles and sometimes on some rickety meat vans, under very unhygienic conditions. The beef is simply packed and transported without regard to safety measures.  

 Although medical experts differ somewhat as to the exact causes of the cancer scourge in the country, there seem to be some agreement that the major cause is the habit of the people. Increased awareness campaigns, improvements in public health are all likely to lead to a decrease in the incidence of this killer disease. Besides, against the background that Nigerians consume over 300 million kilogrammes of beef a year, health authorities should encourage the establishment of modern abattoirs, through partnerships with the private sector. By so doing, we will perhaps be able to save many people from cheap deaths.