In a bid to curb the excessive use of steroids on livestock and its implication on public health, the Niger state government has raised concerns over use steroids by livestock farmers and butchers across the twenty-five (25), Local Government Area of the State.
The disclosure was made by the commissioner for Livestock and Fisheries ZakariBawa and his agriculture ministry counterpart, MalamNuhuDukku, at the conclusion of the weekly state executive council meeting on Wednesday in Minna.
Speaking, they duo bemoaned the use of steroid for fattening purpose by livestock farmers and butchers describing it as worrisome. |
They described the meat in circulation as unsafe for consumption. They also chided the livestock farmers and butchers on the practice of using drugs especially antibiotics and crude methods on the animals.
Further expressing concerns, Bawa gave a whooping statistics showing number of livestock slaughtered daily across the state. He revealed that between 800 and 1,000 cattle, sheep and goats, about 5,000 chickens are consumed daily across the state, putting a greater percentage of consumers at risk of this unwholesome practice.
Bawa asserted that inducing these animals pose grave and dangerous health hazards to the consumer and increases the cost of human healthcare due to problems of drug resistance by infection-disease causing organisms.
He explained that a committee comprising the ministries of Health and Agriculture, as well as the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration (NAFDAC) would soon be set up to address the malpractices.
Bawa warned that on the interim, veterinary doctors will be deployed across the state to ensure that only healthy animals are slaughtered for consumption, just as he acknowledged that sensitization on the inherent danger of the practice has commenced, and warned that anyone found wanting will be fined N500,000.
