Assessment of livestock slaughtered for food and meat inspection issues in selected abattoirs in Benue State, Nigeria

In recent times, many zoonotic diseases have emerged with serious negative consequences on humans. In the light of this, ante-mortem inspections were conducted, using body condition scoring to assess the health status of livestock presenting for slaughter, and to identify issues relating to meat inspection in four purposively selected government approved abattoirs in Benue State, Nigeria. The result of our assessment showed that 5.0% of the cattle and goats presented for slaughter during the investigation period were highly emaciated animals with a prevalence range of 0.0–12.1% with variance between abattoirs, whereas 37.9% were moderately emaciated and 57.2% had good body condition. Extreme emaciation was higher in cattle (6.7%) compared to the goats (3.2%). The moderately high prevalence of emaciated animals intended for human consumption coupled with unorganized and inappropriate meat inspection in the studied abattoirs has serious public health implications. To prevent consumers from contacting zoonotic diseases, education of butchers and traders is necessary for thorough and effective inspections. In addition, animal traders should be encouraged to seek veterinary assistance for their sick animals. Meat inspectors should treat all emaciated animals as suspects, as emaciation could be a cause from underlying health problems.