Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA) has raised concerns over the proliferation of unhygienic abattoirs and slaughterhouses, observe that quacks have cashed in on the scarcity of veterinary professionals to either sell disease-infected meat or to slaughter pregnant livestock.
NVMA President Professor Bello Agaie, while presenting a communique on the outcome of its summit in Abuja, appealed to government to quickly inaugurate the governing board of Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) to implement laws and regulations to stop the unhealthy slaughterhouse trend.
“Ante mortem is done before animals are slaughtered to know the health condition of the animals. And when it is not okay, you are advised to treat it first. If the animal is pregnant you do not slaughter it until after birth,” Agaie said.
“The challenge we have now is that most of the laws regulating abattoirs and slaughterhouses have been returned to the local government. Most of the abattoirs we have are not hygienic and quacks take advantage of the situation to slaughter animals that have not gone through ante mortem examination.
“Most local governments do not have veterinary doctors. Usually, it is the state doctors that are posted to abattoirs to do the work. The man in the local government is more interested in the revenue.”
Agaie added that “the issue of encroachment is of great concern to us. It is a veterinary doctor that is trained to keep animals. People should allow us to do our job because it is a peculiar profession.”