Some residents of Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT have decried the unhygienic means of transporting meat from abattoirs to the market.
Those who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday said the use of wheelbarrows, motorcycles and rickety vehicles to transport meat was worrisome and posed serious health challenges.
A civil servant, Mrs Oyindamola Adegbenga, decried the wheelbarrow mode as unhygienic and equally denounced the way meat is handled at the abattoir.
“I used to like meat, but after seeing the way they use wheelbarrows to transport meat and sometimes even carry the meat on their heads, I stopped buying from the meat stalls.
“I can only eat meat that I am sure about the way it was handled. Most times, we gather ourselves and buy a cow, kill it and share the meat. This way, I am comfortable eating such meat.
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“I think whoever is in charge of abattoirs should educate the butchers on proper ways of meat handling,’’ she said.
Adegbenga called on government to provide better means of transporting meat to markets and to other designated places.
Mr Darlington Eboh, an artisan, said while he did not place much emphasis on the way meat is handled, those in charge should do things the proper way and professionally too.
Eboh said those in charge should find out how meat is handled in developed countries and replicate same in Nigeria.
A butcher, Mr Suleiman Mohammed, said meat handlers would comply if government introduced better means of conveying meat from abattoirs to markets.
“For now, wheelbarrows, motorcycles and these old vehicles you see around are our means of transporting meat and we will continue to use them until there are alternatives,’’ he said.
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Reacting to the submissions, Dr Sidiama Adamu, Principal Veterinary Officer, Gwagwalada Abattoir said plans were underway by the FCT Administration to provide haulage vans to convey meat from abattoirs to markets.
He said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently donated refrigerated meat vans to the FCT Administration and that the latter planned to provide more.
He added that the abattoir management regularly sensitised butchers on how best to handle meat, and noted that it was unhygienic to litter the slaughter slab with meat after slaughtering the cows.
“Ideally meat is supposed to be hanged after slaughtering the cow. Meat is not supposed to have contact with the slaughter slab after the cow has been slaughtered.
“Unfortunately, that is the only available system in the country right now.
“The skinning is supposed to be done while the slaughtered cow is hung; that makes it more hygienic as the meat will not come in contact with cow dung,’’ he said.
Adamu also told NAN that veterinary officers regularly inspected cows brought to the abattoir to be slaughtered so as to stave off anthrax or other animal diseases transmittable to human beings.
Anthrax is a bacterial infection occurring naturally in the soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals. People can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products.
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Adamu said veterinary officers also sensitise and educate butchers regularly on how to identify unfit animals and how to handle them.
“It is our responsibility to educate butchers on the symptoms of anthrax.
“One of the major signs of anthrax disease is sudden death of an animal with blood gushing from its mouth, ears, anus and nose. The blood of such infected animal does not clot.
“Butchers are not supposed to go close to such animals. We always advise them to run away because humans can also contract anthrax by inhaling the anthrax spores,’’ he said.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed one case of anthrax disease in a mixed livestock farm in Niger on July 13.
It was the first animal case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the West Africa outbreak in Ghana in June 2023.
The ministry reported eight other cases on the farm in Niger and the animals that died were observed to have been bleeding from external orifices without the blood clotting.