ASSESSMENT OF MEAT HYGIENE PRACTICES IN ABATTOIRS AND MARKETS IN OWERRI WEST LGA., IMO STATE, NIGERIA.

¹Izunobi Charity C., ²E.A Nwoke, ³C.O.A. Amadi and ⁴C.C. Iwuala

^{1, 2, 3&4}Department of Public Health

Federal University of Technology, Owerri,

Imo State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

Background: Food-borne disease remains a major global health challenge in developing countries. This study is to assess the meat hygiene practices in Abattoirs and Markets among butchers in Owerri West LGA, Imo State, Nigeria. The study was guided by five objectives and related literature reviewed.

Methods:  A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was carried out among 92 meat handlers in Owerri West LGA, Imo State, Nigeria, who were selected using a multistage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data concerning their practice of meat hygiene, and data analysis was done using SPSS version 21. Chi-square statistics was used to test the association between the variables at the level of significance of 5%.

Results: It was found out that there is association between respondents’ sex and their knowledge of meat hygiene, we found that p = 0.191> 0.05 level of significance which shows that there is no association between respondents’ sex and their knowledge of meat hygiene and also that there is a relationship that exists between respondents’ levels of education and knowledge, attitude and hygiene practices with p-values less than 0.05 level of significance.

Conclusion: There is a relationship between respondents’ levels of education and knowledge, attitude and hygiene practices with p-values less than 0.05. Public health education, policy formulation, and regular training and retraining of the meat handlers on safe meat handling as well as general and personal hygiene were strongly recommended.

Keywords: Meat hygiene, Attitude, knowledge and practices Significance level, Safe meat handling.