MENACES IN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, PROCESSING AND TRANSPORTATION OF MEAT IN THE SEMI ARID OF KANO METROPOLIS ABATTOIRS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.7649Keywords:
Abattoir Management Practices, Meat Processing, Meat products, Head-pan, Wheel-barrowAbstract
The study was conducted at Kano abattoirs/slaughter slabs to determine and evaluate the management practices, meat processing techniques/handling and conveyance of the meat to various points of sale in the metropolis. A structured questionnaire and visual inspection were adopted. It covered a period of three months (December, 2017 - February, 2018). The results showed that goat, sheep, cattle, and camel are the animals usually slaughtered. A total of 54.33% goats, 23.87% sheep, 14.24% cattle and 7.46% camels were slaughtered. There were menaces in abattoir practices such as absence and improper use of lairage and antemortem examination, rough control of animals, unhygienic practices and brutality to fetal losses. Others
include insufficient postmortem examinations on the slaughtered animals, and brutal attitudes of the animal owners. The commendable abattoir practices include method of cutting-up and byproduct processing. The finding of the present study showed that the meat carrying equipment are not wash regularly. The most means of meat transportation within the abattoirs are carrying on shoulder/head by pan (18.18%) or by wheelbarrow (9.09%), then the butchers convey the meat on motorcycle (30.91%), tricycles (34.55%), as well as use of few meat vans and taxis (7.27%) under very unhygienic conditions. Hence, more
veterinarians, para-veterinarians and environmental health workers should be employed. People should be enlightened through media on meat hygiene and sanitary measures. Legislation prohibiting selling of unhygienic meat should be enforced, and modern means of transportation should be provided.
