Foetal wastage in food animals slaughtered at Nsukka Municipal abattoir, Nigeria

This study was conducted to evaluate foetal/pregnancy losses following slaughtering of food animals at Nsukka Municipal Abattoir Enugu State, Nigeria over a period of three months (April to June). The pregnancy status of each animal was determined tentatively by visual observation and by palpation of the exposed uterus after slaughtering. Attempts were made to recover embryos from dams with structures suggestive of pregnancy by flushing. Foetuses were recovered from slaughtered cattle, goats and pigs. The ages of recovered foetuses were determined and grouped according to the stage of gestation. A total of 2711 animals were slaughtered within the study period which comprised 1303 (48.06%) cattle, 756 (27.89%) pigs and 652 (24.05%) goats. The percentages of female animals slaughtered were 19.41, 49.74 and 91.26 for cattle, pigs and goals, respectively. Of these figures, 7.43%, 8.78% and 40.34% of cows, sows and does were pregnant, respectively. Similarly of the 78 uteri flushed, 4, 10 and 7 embryos were recovered from cattle, pigs and goats. The slaughtering of these pregnant animals resulted in loss of 605 foetuses; 417 goats, 174 pigs and 14 cattle, respectively. This amounts to possible economic losses of N5, 946,000.00 or $37,396.23. Reasons advanced for slaughtering of these pregnant animals included financial needs, scarcity and or high cost of feed and ignorance of the physiological status of the animals. It was concluded from the study that to reduce foetal losses in Nsukka area, educating the farmers, provision of portable pregnancy diagnostic facilities and enforcing the law prohibiting slaughtering of pregnant animals are vital.