There are reports of unwholesome meat in markets across the country. Health experts are worried that this may be linked to growing cases of zoonotic diseases in the country.
As good as slaughtering business is, it is plagued with challenges in the process, from cattle merchants through the slaughters, to the consumers. Sometime in 2013, officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with the Task Force raided illegal slaughter slabs in Ketu, Owode and Ikorodu areas of the state, where some of the operators were apprehended.
From carcasses seized, the veterinary experts of the ministry detected bright yellowish liquid substance on the head of a cow, which was later detected to be tuberculosis. Another crude method of preservation according to sources is the use of animal blood. “The meat will be soaked inside a bowl filled with blood and will be left till another day. Most of the meat sold as early as 10am in some places are from such.”
“Inadequate in the sense that they are not installed to the capacity of the number of animals they can conveniently slaughter daily. For instance, if you have an abattoir with a capacity for 100 animals per day, yet you are slaughtering 1,000 animals there.