Stakeholders are concerned that abattoirs are in terrible conditions and that contaminated cattle are slaughtered for consumption. Daniel Essiet reports.
Livestock expert Dr. Ademola Adeyemo has said continued threats of meat contamination and the poor state of the abattoirs underscore the need to modernise meat inspection.
Adeyemo, who is Head, General Management Division, Agricultural and Rural Management and Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, said the public is worried that contaminants could get into food, creating anxiety among consumers about food safety and quality.
He called for the modernisation of meat inspection to improve protection and empower inspectors.
He maintained that less inspection would lead to contamination and as such, more inspection ought to be done to reduce food contamination, explaining that health risks from meat are microbiological and cannot be detected by the eye.
Reacting to allegations of food safety compromise around slaughtering places and abattoirs, Adeyemo called for improved legislation, and higher hygiene standards in plants.
He said any official controls in slaughterhouses must provide effective protection against meat-borne risks to health, for the welfare of animals and against the risks associated with the spread of animal disease.
He urged the government to focus on ways of enhancing consumer protection by modernising inspection systems to ensure they are relevant.
To reduce the risk of diseased carcasses entering the slaughterhouse in the first instance, Adeyemo said there should be some sort of information coming from the farm to the slaughterhouse. He explained that if one gets information about diseased animals and the treatments they have had at the farm level, then inspection would be tighter.
The founding President, Mycotoxiclogy Society of Nigeria, Prof Dele Fapohunda has called on the Federal Government to standardise inspection procedures for food and farm animal feeds produced in the country to make them safer and prevent losses for producers.
This follows concern over the safety of livestock feeds that mounted in recent years, as discoveries of contaminated food and livestock feed led to worries about the safety of the food production system.
Fapohunda stressed the need to improve standards for inspections by states and other regulatory bodies that oversee the production of food and feed for farm animals, such as cattle, chickens and pigs.
While routine inspection and enforcement practices may not differ among the various states’ agencies responsible for conducting inspections of the companies that make these products, he maintained that problems can often fall through the gaps.
He urged the government to unify the process, with guidelines that range from on-site inspection protocols at feed plants, to how to respond to feed-related illnesses or deaths.
He urged practitioners to implement the feed standards and support efforts to build uniformity and consistency among state-feed regulatory programmes.
In addition to this, he called for measures targeted at monitoring drug residues and contaminants in meat animals, by strengthening testing of meat products for drug residues and contaminants to reduce risks to both health of livestock and human beings.
Also, at the 19th Economic Summit Group in Abuja during the Presidential Dialogue, one of the discussants and Chief Executive Officer of Halal Meat Limited, Alhaji Tafida, drew the attention of the President and other eminent participants on the sorry state of abattoirs and the health implication of unwholesome meat to many Nigerians.
According to Tafida, meat consumed in Nigeria falls short of international standard. Apart from the filthy and dirty environment, the animals being slaughtered daily in these abattoirs are not inspected and examined by qualified and registered veterinarians, he noted.
He lamented that in the 21st Century, Nigeria lacks standards in the production and processing of meat, adding: “Abattoirs are operated in open places infested with flies and maggots, with flies infested tables and faulty scales for measuring meat for consumers.” The meat, according to him, is often conveyed from abattoirs to other places with dirty wheelbarrows and rickety vehicles which constitute health hazard to the consumers.
To this end, Tafida called on President Goodluck Jonathan to convene stakeholders’meeting that would involve all tiers of government to dialogue on the best way to process meat to save Nigerians from spending huge amount of money as a result consumption of unhygienic and disease-infested meat.
He contended that the quality of meat is inimical to their health. “It is unarguable that sustainable food security through the production and availability of good quality animal and fish protein products would enhance the healthy growth of Nigerians and overall socio-economic development of the nation,” he pointed out.
Speaking in another forum, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. AkinwumiAdesina, described the state of abattoirs as “unacceptable and distasteful. ”
He decried the unhygienic environment, poor meat handling and sub-standard products found in some abattoirs.
The Minister also expressed concern on the quality of technical training and service provided in the livestock sub-sector, calling for a renewed regulatory framework to move animal production away from the subsistence economy to a sustainable livestock business that would create jobs and generate wealth.
He tasked the Council to come up with guidelines and minimum standards for the industry to address quackery and other sharp practices in the profession.
He explained that Nigeria is yet to meet minimum animal protein intake per person as recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), calling for a paradigm shift to reverse this trend.
