The Government of Benue state has warned residents against the consumption of dead animals to avert contracting anthrax disease.
The Chairman of the state Committee on Prevention and Control of Anthrax and Director of Livestock Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Edward Amali, who gave the advice Thursday in Makurdi, said the call became necessary following the discovery that some butchers were in the habit of slaughtering and selling already dead animals.
He criticized the practice assuring that the government would embark on house-to-house Sensitization to get the people conscientious on the dangers of the diseases
He said: “At this point when there is a scare of an anthrax disease in the country, we are advised to ensure we are cautious on how we eat pork and beef. They must be inspected at the abattoirs if you must eat meat.
“We advise butchers to completely desist from butchering dead animals because you don’t know what killed the animals but some of them won’t heed. By doing so, they are also the first point of contact.
Additionally, Amali assured that the state government, through the committee, had intensified the sensitization of residents on safety measures.
He said, “we had embarked on television and radio sensitization and we now want to commence house to house sensitization because we have realized that because of the law prohibiting open grazing in the state, most houses and compounds have animals tied in their premises that do not come out at all and this could form a major number among livestock populations in the state.
“So even if they are 20 or 30 percent, we are looking at starting our sensitization campaign house to house so that we could reach these animals that are being kept and fed within the houses.”
