MEAT HANDLING KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES AMONG SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORKERS IN TAMALE METROPOLIS

Abstract

The slaughtering of animals for human consumption is a critical industry with huge potential of public health risk or safety. Slaughtering of animals takes place in very dilapidated structures under unsanitary environmental conditions and there is hardly any monitoring of equipment that is used at the slaughtering processes. This study was therefore to assess the meat handling hy giene knowledge, attitudes and practices of slaughterhouse workers in Tamale and to identify the determinants of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the butchers. A mixed method cross sectional study was employed in the study. A validated 65-item questionnaire was used to collect data on meat handling hygiene knowledge, attitudes and practices from 135 slaughterhouse workers selected with a two-stage clusters sampling. Male (95%) and female (4.5%) respondents had no formal education. The level of high hygiene knowledge and cross-contamination knowledge of the slaughterhouse workers were found to be 23% and 30% respectively. Only 28% and 25% of the butchers also respectively had high desirable meat handling attitude and high recommended meat handling practices. After controlling for other explanatory variables, absence of functional waste bins for solid waste management [(AOR: 2.844, 95%, CI: 0.918 - 8.810, p=0.070)] and non-availability of separate areas demarcated for slaughtering and skinning processes [(AOR: 14.126, 95%, CI: 2.994 - 66.645, p<0.01)] as operational challenges were both found to be strong predictors of meat handling hygiene knowledge of the slaughterhouse work ers. Meanwhile, the level of recommended hygienic practices of the slaughterhouse operators were found to be independently related to non-availability of drains for liquid waste management in the slaughterhouse as an operational challenge [(AOR: 42.845, 95%, CI: 4.757 - 385.915, p<0.01)].The knowledge, attitudes and practices of the slaughterhouse workers were low and largely predicted by operational challenges.