Huh! Roadside Meat Can Cause Abortions?

That's what this feature story by Cameroon Tribune on road side meat in Bamenda, is claiming oh.

Please read

The sale of meat away from assigned municipal slabs is responsible for some of the cases of abortions in the city, says a veterinary expert.
Records from veterinary services in metropolitan Bamenda reveal that about 25 cows are slaughtered every day to serve the city’s 700,000 inhabitants and neighbouring communities. Saturdays and feast days take the number slaughtered up to 50 at the lone Municipal Slaughter House.
However, the vexing issue is that a sizeable portion of the meat is sold on the streets; away from regular meat slabs at the Bamenda Main Market at the Commercial Avenue and the Ntarinkon and Nkwen Municipal Markets.

In effect, roadside meat sale is in vogue at entrances into virtually all Bamenda markets and the Upstation neighbourhood. On the other hand, some boys hawk meat on the streets and in bars, exposing it to air-borne diseases.

Linus Nji and Taniform George argue that by taking meat to the roadsides, they are closer to customers, most of whom have little time to spend moving into and out of crowded markets. Other roadside meat sellers, Billa Emile and Tambi Emmanuel, say meat is available on the streets when Bamenda’s markets shut their gates at 5 pm daily. Others blame the unhygienic conditions of some municipal meat slabs.

The dilapidated state of the Nkwen Market Meat Slab has also sent butchers away to the entrance of Sisia Quarter. Recalcitrance is also to blame, according to the Regional Delegate of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Dr. Atanga Heinendez Merius.

He told Cameroon Tribune that it is the role of his department to ensure that only meat good for consumption is sold. He blames insufficient staff and means for the inability to enforce decisions that restrict the sale of meat to market stalls.

The situation does not help matters with revelations by the North West Regional Head for Veterinary Services, Dr. Prudencia Yensi Lawan that the sale of meat on roadsides exposes the public to airborne diseases like Escherichia, Coli form Gastro Enteritis, Salmonellosis, etc. Dr Prudencia Yensi Lawan told Cameroon Tribune that selling meat on the streets can lead to health hazards with infectious diseases that cause poor digestion, absorption, distribution and even death.

Worse still, she says women or pregnant women who consume meat exposed to Zoonosis and Salmondlosis bacteria could suffer Typhoid, chronic enteritis and abortion or miscarriages. Dr Prudencia Yensi Lawan therefore stresses the need for meat hygiene.