Inadvertent Slaughter of Female Goats and Foetal Wastages at Rumuokoro Abattoir in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Abstract

The study investigated inadvertent slaughter of pregnant goats in a Port Harcourt abattoir. Daily visits were made to Rumuokoro abattoir early enough to witness the slaughter process and collect essential data personally for a period of one month. From the results, a total of 1041 goats were slaughtered, out of which 564(54.18%) were males and 477 (45.82%) were females. Of the 477 (45.82%) does slaughtered, 202 (42.35%) were pregnant and 269 (56.39%) does were found non-gravid. On the average, the highest number of the trade goats was slaughtered in week three of the study duration and more females slaughtered were found to be pregnant in the 3rd week. In conclusion, lack of public awareness on early pregnancy detection and improved ante-mortem pregnancy screening were some of the underlying problems identified in this study.