Slaughter of pregnant goats for meat at Nsukka slaughterhouse and its economic implications: A public health concern

Vet World Vol.11 August-2018 Article-18

Research Article

Veterinary World, 11(8): 1139-1144

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2018.1139-1144

Onyinye Josephine Okorie-Kanu¹, Ekene Vivienne Ezenduka¹, Christian Onwuchokwe Okorie-Kanu², Chidiebere Ohazurike Anyaoha¹, Chukwuebuka Anselm Attah¹, Toochukwu Eleazar Ejiofor³, and S. Onyinye Onwumere-Idolor⁴

1. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
2. Department of Pathology, Michael Okpara College of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
3. Department of Agric Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
4. Department of Agricultural Technology, School of Agriculture, Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, Delta State, Nigeria.

Background and Aim: This study was conducted to determine the incidence rate of the slaughter of pregnant goats in Nsukka slaughterhouse, which has become a major cruel occurrence in Nigeria, as well as it's economic and public health implications.

Materials and Methods: All the goats slaughtered at Nsukka slaughterhouse over a period of 3 months (February-April, 2017) were screened. The data collected were: total number of goats slaughtered, age, breed and sex of goats slaughtered, pregnancy status of the goats, and sex of the fetuses observed, and gestational age of the fetuses estimated by crown-rump length.

Results: In the 3-month study, a total of 684 goats were slaughtered, of which 617 (90.2%) were females. 364 (59%) of the females slaughtered were pregnant, and more than 80% of the gestations were in the second and third trimesters. Of 661 fetuses recorded, 320 (48.3%) were males, and 341 (51.7%) were females with 438 (66.3%) predominantly twins. At the cost of ₦ 6,000 ($16) and ₦ 8,000 ($20) for male and female kids, respectively, a total of ₦ 4,648,000 ($11,620) was lost in just one slaughterhouse in 3 months.

Conclusion: This study shows that there is a high rate of slaughter of pregnant goats in Nsukka slaughterhouse with a tremendous economic loss, and most chevon sold in Nsukka are unwholesome and of low meat quality. Keywords: economic implications, fetuses, low meat quality, pregnant goats, public health, unwholesome.

Keywords: economic implications, fetuses, low meat quality, pregnant goats, public health, unwholesome.

How to cite this article: Okorie-kanu OJ, Ezenduka EV, Okorie-kanu CO, Anyaoha CO, Attah CA, Ejiofor TE, Onwumere-Idolor SO (2018) Slaughter of pregnant goats for meat at Nsukka slaughterhouse and its economic implications: A public health concern, Veterinary World, 11(8): 1139-1144.

Received: 24-03-2018 Accepted: 05-07-2018 Published online: 17-08-2018

Corresponding author: Ekene Vivienne Ezenduka E-mail: ekene.ezenduka@unn.edu.ng

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.1139-1144

Copyright: Okorie-kanu, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.