ANIMAL FOOD PRODUCTS SAFETY SITUATION IN NIGERIA

By Dr. I. C. Okoli
Tropical Animal Health and Production Research, Department of Animal Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.

Introduction
Animal food products are excellent sources of high quality nutrients especially proteins, minerals and vitamins. Their production, processing and distribution form important segments of the economy of most societies. For example in most rural societies in Nigeria, ownership of livestock is regarded as an investment. Livestock are sold to meet compelling family financial obligations or may be slaughtered for consumption at home or during festivals.

Myriad of constraints inherent in the poor economy, climate, inadequate breeding and husbandry systems, limitations of feed availability and animal diseases among others are major limiting factors to efficient livestock production in Nigeria. Because of these constraints, animal protein intake in Nigeria still falls short of the value (70g/head) recommended by FAO. Consequently, animal products are viewed as rare delicacies and there is hardly any customer discrimination against poor quality products. Foods of animal origin have however been shown to constitute a special threat to human health through presence of zoonoses and other forms of contaminants. Wholesomeness, characterized by consistency in safety, quality yield and value of products presented to the public should therefore be the most important goal of animal food products production industry in any country.

Various research efforts have highlighted the problem of poor quality animal food products production and handling in Nigeria. The production, handling, sales and consumption of poor quality animal food products are in deed, serious public health problems in Nigeria traceable to the influence of the underdeveloped status of livestock producers, marketers, meat processors, quality regulating agencies staff and consumers on different segments of the country’s livestock industry. However, there is scanty quantifiable information on the magnitude of the problem and specifically the sources of contamination of these products at the different segments of the industry. The need to continually assess the quality of animal food products as well as the current socio-cultural factors associated with such products delivery and their human health implications for the country therefore remains imperative. Information derived from such assessments provides valuable data for the development of appropriate intervention strategies and formulation of sound public health education for the containment of the problem. This write up appraises the current facts about animal food products safety situation in Nigeria and highlights future research issues that could generate appropriate data for intervention strategies and containment of the problem and its health risks.

Production And Marketing
Over 70% of the Nigerian ruminant livestock population are in the traditional herds reared in the savannah agro-ecological zone mostly by Fulani and Shuwa Arabs pastoralists, more as symbol of status than as meat animals. Among these nomadic groups, the white Fulani or Bunaji forms the most important cattle breed in terms of population, size and spread while important small ruminants include the Ouda, Balami and Yankassa among the sheep and the Sokoto red or Madara goat. In the rainforest zone, smallholder West African dwarf (WAD) ruminant production is predominant. Over 80% of rural families keep these animals, primarily as source of investment, manure, and meat at home or during festivals. These indigenous ruminants although hardy, are slow growing and low in productivity. Most modern farms in Nigeria are commercial poultry and pig farms. While cultural and religious prohibitions have restricted commercial pig farming to the southern parts of the country, small-scale producers dominate commercial poultry production. The greater proportion of poultry population in the country is therefore made up of indigenous breeds reared by rural farmers under extensive scavenging system.

Among these traditional producers, ethno-veterinary healthcare forms a major part of disease management. This is probably so because traditional animal healthcare practice remains a readily available low cost alternative to the relatively costly imputes driven modern veterinary services. In fact, animals such as the WAD ruminants, local chickens and ducks kept in the southern parts of the country, hardly receive any form of modern veterinary attention. Federal Livestock Department (FLD) estimates on animal disease status in the country however, reveal very high incidence of infectious diseases among Nigerian herds. Diseases of high incidence encountered included, helminthoses, trypanosomosis, babesiosis, ectoparasitoses, dermatophilosis, orf, brucellosis tuberculosis and heart water among others. Major outbreaks of contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia (CBPP), foot and mouth disease (FMD), peste des petite ruminants (PPR) and black quarter have also been recorded.

In Nigeria, ruminant animals marketed for meat are usually those reluctantly culled because of age, ill health or necessity. Livestock marketing is dominated by the Hausa–Fulani and is highly restricted, even across family lines and cults. The system is froth with poor products distribution and market structure organization, which leads to high consumer prices. Beef however contributes more significantly to meat trade than any other source. Due to lack of meat preservation facilities, most slaughtering take place in the hundreds of slaughter slabs, scattered all over the country and from there, carcasses are taken to the market and the meat sold to the consumers immediately

The production and marketing segments of the industry are therefore tied to the cultural mores of these key players and this forms the basis for much of local level decision-making and actions affecting the segments. Introduction of modern techniques with their seemly costly and alien infra-structural requirements into these segments has continued to encounter difficulties.

Products Processing And Handling
The difficulties encountered in introducing modern techniques into the Nigerian livestock industry are usually most glaring at animal auction and slaughter points and are manifested by the continued employment of primitive methods at these points. Where modern facilities for animal slaughter and meat handling have been installed (usually at astronomical costs), they are usually abandoned due to poor patronage by local butchers and neglect by regulating government agencies. Butchers are reluctant in patronizing these modern facilities because they view the mechanized and automated systems as competitors for their jobs and those of their dependants. In most Nigerian cities therefore, what passes for an abattoir is usually a low- grade quality slaughter premise within the market center consisting of a thin slab of concrete and a small pit that serves for collection of both solid and liquid wastes. These slaughter slabs handle more than half of the animals slaughtered in the country. At these official points, animals scheduled for slaughter are force-dragged and beaten to the slab. Method of slaughter is predominantly halal; immobilization by wrestling down of animals while sticking is carried out on the floor. Furthermore, gloves, toilet facilities, dressing accommodation for butchers, waste disposal and cold storage facilities for unsold meat products and microbiology laboratories are usually lacking.

The carcasses of slaughtered animals are usually transported from the slaughter points to the retailing points on head or in vehicles hardly designed for that purpose. It is therefore common to see taxis, pick-up vans, buses, delivery vans and motorbikes at such slaughter points awaiting their consignments. Apprentice butchers and retailers may also be seen sitting on the carcasses or resting on them inside the vehicles.

In Nigeria, illiterates and school dropouts dominate butchery. Because of divergent goals and clear misconception of the aims of meat inspection by these operators, stiff and sometimes violent resistances to meat or carcass condemnation are common. Cases of pre-selection of ill-looking animals for slaughtering at unofficial points by butchers have been reported. Similarly, many food animal species such as pigs, donkeys and dogs slaughtered in many states of the country for public consumption are not inspected. This however does not include commercial broilers, cockerels and spent-layers slaughtered in thousands for home use or for festivals, which are not subjected to any form of meat inspection. Since meat inspection regulations have not yet been extended to include these animal species, data on their slaughter volumes are not known.

Furthermore, several reports have highlighted the problem of high incidence of slaughtering of pregnant animals at the official veterinary slaughter points. A recent report by Okoli and others showed that 14.1, 31.6 and 47.5% of cows, does and ewes respectively slaughtered in Imo state, southeastern Nigeria from 1995 to 1999 were pregnant. Major concerns about slaughtering of pregnant animals include enormous fetal wastage, reduction in animal population, loss of dairy products, and supply of poor quality meat products to the public.

Official Meat Inspection Records
Abattoir activities can provide valuable data for the development of animal diseases surveillance programs as well as support public health authorities in their epidemiological functions. Meat inspection records returned by relevant agencies in Nigeria often underestimate the slaughter volume and prevalence of important diseases. Meat inspectors are usually under pressure from butchers and may trim affected tissues or glands and then pass the carcass for human consumption. Although the law provides that meat or parts thereof condemned should be compensated for, perpetual scarcity of funds hinders the carrying out of this obligation. The butchers thus view condemnation as a source of serious economic loss and therefore avoid possible means by which their stock may be condemned.

In 1990, Ogunrinade and Oyekole estimated that meat inspectors in Nigeria detected only 0 to 20% of TB cases occurring in slaughter animals. A recent study by Okoli and others highlighted the magnitude of poor meat inspection records in southeastern Nigeria and traced part of the problem to official and unofficial corruption involving veterinary public health personnel and butchers. This particular study showed that an estimated 36, 556 animals made up of 6,611 cattle, 4,370 sheep, 18,515 goats and 7,060 pigs were slaughtered unofficially in five of the 27 local government areas in Imo state, Nigeria, during the year 2000. The estimated figures for pig were numerically significant at these unofficial points while official records for the same specie were fragmented or out-rightly lacking. The overall figures for sheep and goats slaughtered unofficially at the five local government areas (4,370 and 18,515 respectively) exceeded the official 4,265 and 17,705 respectively returned for the whole state during a five-year period.

It is equally clear that veterinary authorities in Nigeria still harbour an old-fashioned view of meat inspection services as entirely a device for consumer protection. Thus, facilities for the diagnosis of important zoonoses of public health relevance such as brucellosis, Q fever, salmonella, toxoplasmosis and leptospirosis are lacking at the abattoir level even in the few modern facilities found in the country. Development and adoption of an integrated meat inspection system, where information from the farm level is included has been suggested for abattoir services improvement.

Consumer Awareness
Meat is usually thoroughly cooked in Nigerian societies but because of poor hygiene in most homes, cross-contamination from infected meat to other foods or utensils usually occur. In most Nigerian societies, animal protein especially meat and eggs are still rear delicacies and the general notion is that “meat is meat and whatever is found inside meat is meat”. There is hardly any customer led discrimination against contaminated, poorly produced or processed products as is usually the case in developed countries. There are no statutory requirements in Nigeria regarding the general inspection of game carcasses prior to sale. Along intercity highways in Nigeria, motorists stopping to buy processed wildlife or fish without bothering about the wholesomeness of such meat is common site. Several pathological processes and disease entities with zoonotic implications are however known to be harboured by wildlife.

Bacterial contaminants of ready to eat, takeaway meat products found in many Nigerian cities, whether of spoilage or pathogenic nature, are known to multiply rapidly, reducing food quality and accentuating the existing grave problem of malnutrition in the country. The risk of food residues of various origins, such as insecticides, antibiotics and mycotoxins, which is an important aspect of food safety, is hardly known to the Nigerian public. Reports of human breast milk and cow milk from common tropical environments reflecting similar high concentrations of aflatoxins highlight the public health implication of this ignorance. Furthermore, even though rare incidents of human diseases have been attributed to hazardous levels of pesticides contamination of milk and meat, nevertheless, non-biological contaminants continue to be important with respect to international trade and consumer confidence.

Public Health Implications
Foods of animal origin constitute a special threat to human health. For example, over 160 zoonoses, out of which about one third are clinically important are now recognized. Reservoirs of zoonoses among domestic animals are sources of greatest danger to meat handlers, consumers and people living in close contact with such animals. In Nigeria, incidence levels of grave public health concern have been reported for tuberculosis, cysticercosis, fascioliasis, teniasis and brucellosis among others in slaughtered animals. Ona and Chiejina in 1995 reported that as many as 8.6% of hospitalized patients in southeastern Nigeria had taenia eggs in their stools and over 20% of trade, pigs had T. solium cysticercosis. Other parasites such as Trichinella spiralis and Toxoplasma gondii are also important health risks of the consumption of under cooked pock.

The importance of cattle as a source of extra- pulmonary tuberculosis in man has been highlighted severally. Many cattle may be excreting mycobacterium in aerosols and milk in Nigeria. Because of the traditional methods of cattle production in Nigeria, at greatest risk are the cattle owing families and their hired labours that live in close contact with their animals, breathing the same air. The reluctance to sell animals among the Fulani implies that emaciated tuberculous cattle are retained for longer periods. The wide spread practice of drinking milk raw by herd boys and feeding babies with colostrums from raw milk among this group also exposes them to risk.

Furthermore, milk products, which are preserved and distributed over wider areas, present risks to a wider population. Fulani women and their children are culturally saddled with the task of milk processing and sales and are therefore at highest risk. Residues of milk products from one day are usually used as starter for the next batch of products, thus TB organisms are spread further than the milk from which they originated. Already infected women involved in milk processing and distribution may contaminate the products when coughing. In addition, it has become increasingly evident that people whose immune systems are compromised due to chronic liver disease, malnutrition or HIV infection may be affected by mycobacterium species other than M. tuberculosis, such as M. bovis, M. avium, and M. kansasii. Salmonella and other food borne enterics transmitted to humans through animal food products are also important global problems, which may have received very limited attention in developing countries such as Nigeria.

Of equal importance also is the public health risks of dissemination of anti-microbial resistance encoding organisms to humans through consumption of improperly produced, and handled animal food products. Again, numerous public health risks may also be associated with the production and processing of aqua-cultural products as well as consumer risks arising from unsanitary handling or preparation and storage at incorrect temperatures.

Conclusion
There is indeed an urgent need to understand the socio-cultural facts and statistic about the status of animal food products production, handling and consumption, and also the need for quality assessment of animal food products as well as their possible impacts on human health in Nigeria. Available information highlights the numerous gaps in our current understanding of the facts of the issue. It further highlights the major research issues that need to be addressed in other to generate relevant information for intervention and containment of the problem and its human health risks.

Overall, the major issues that may require future research attention include,