Lagosians at risk of Zoonotic infections

 
The way meat is processed at the multibillion naira abattoir in Lagos may render its consumption dangerous to health.

The Lagos State Government has always claimed that beef sourced from state-accredited abattoirs are safe for food.  However, findings from Saturday PUNCH’s investigation have shown that this claim might not be totally true.

Findings from successive visits to the state’s largest abattoir by our correspondent over a period of three months showed that Lagosians consuming beef may be at risk of zoonotic infections.These are deadly diseases transmissible from animals to man through consumption.

Investigations at the Oko-Oba Abattoir and Lairage, Lagos, the state’s biggest abattoir, revealed a chain of daily routine that promotes unhealthy and unethical practices that medical practitioners fear could portend risk of diseases to members of the public.

Over 200 diseased cows are killed daily

Our correspondent observed that at least, 20 out of every 100 cows slaughtered at the abattoir were distressed, bruised and unable to walk.

At least, 200 of such cows are slaughtered everyday out of the over 1,200 cows killed at the abattoir for food daily.

Often appearing to be in a coma, the cows were wheeled on wooden stretchers into the slaughter slab area from the cattle market located within the same complex.

Despite the fact that the state government has banned the slaughtering of diseased cows, Saturday PUNCH observed that the practice continued with impunity in the glare of vet doctors and other task force teams on duty, who looked the other way.

 During the first visit by Saturday PUNCH, a cow was dead on arrival, but it could not be ascertained what was done with it. However, the rule at the abattoir is that such cows should be cut and burnt.

Mature cows at the abattoir cost between N100,000 and 250,000.

Some medical and veterinary doctors who spoke with our correspondent said deadly health conditions such as leptospirosis, listeriasis, brucellosis, Q-fever, anthrax, cysticercosis, tuberculosis and infection with ebola and salmonellosis viruses, could result from contact with or consumption of contaminated and infected animals and products.

“The most popular disease that can be transmitted to man by eating infected meat is mad cow disease, which presents in humans as Creudtfeldt Jakob disease.”