CHAPTER TWO

Literature Review

INTRODUCTION

Abattoir meat condemnation takes into account both the animal welfare sector and
the public health sector. As stated by Phiri, 2006 an abattoir or slaughterhouse is a
source of valuable information of animal diseases and conditions, some of which
may be zoonotic. There is need to provide adequate supervision on these premises
to increase productivity because some loses are recorded during the slaughtering
period.
Cases of malnutrition affecting the country are based on the inadequate
development of the livestock sub-sector due to various diseases, with most of them
being zoonotic for instance during the course of this thesis around.This chapter
serves to give the literature review on past and present records of conditions and
diseases which have led to to the high rate of bovine and porcine meat
condemnation in Bulawayo and the Esgodini area in the Matebeleland region in
Zimbabwe. Not only does this chapter talk about the prevalence of these diseases
and conditions but also shows the economic strains which are caused by carcass and
offals condemnation.

Legislative provisions for abattoir meat inspection in Zimbabwe

During the early years around the period of 1800, meat inspection was introduced
when the rise of zoonotic diseases was on the rise with cases of mycobacteria spp
affecting the mass populations of Europe.In Zimbabwe the food control and
regulatory system fall under a lot of different governmental organization, with some
of the following, The National Biotechnological Authority act, The Animal Health Act ,
The Food Standards Acts and the control of goods act.
By order The Food Standard Act serves to establish the food standards Advisory
Board which has the principal role of advising the minister of Health on all food
safety related matters. The Department of Veterinary Services under the ministry of
Agriculture plays a pivotal role in issuing veterinary certificates. The main agenda of
the food control system is to enhance good hygienic practices through the food
chain processing, therefore meat processing hygiene is considered as part of the
Quality Management(QM) of meat plants and therefore there is need to take
hygienic measures in the steps of manufacturing meat products.

For instance in South Africa abattoirs are regulated by the Meat Act, 2000( which
was imposed in Act No.40 of 2000), this act was enacted to give empowerment to
the Meat Safety Advisory Forum which then advises the Minister of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries on matters which are related to meat safety. The food safety
system in Zimbabwe is indirectly and directly controlled by the measures such as the
import permits, exports permits, licensing and registration, and inspections are also
crucial especially on this topic. The local authority provides licensing to the the Public
Health Sector which states that all animals and birds slaughtered for human
consumption should be slaughtered at registered abattoirs. However the acquiring
inspection and certification, the Food and Food Standards Regulations have the
authority to permit any premises which is involved in the sale, manufacturing,
production, processing or even the treatment of the food to a certain standard. The
requirements from the Public Health sector which serves as the broad organization
for the abattoir,Animal and bird slaughter and the Meat hygiene state that an ante-
mortem inspection must be performed within a duration of 72 hrs upon arrival to
the abattoir. With the regulations stating that if an animal is not slaughtered within
24 hours after an ante-morten inspection has taken place then the process must be
repeated. This is mainly because the regulations of the ante-morten inspection
provides a certain list of diseases which are to be checked, and the meat inspectors
are the ones who are authorized to declare whether or not the meat is suitable for
human consumption.

Economic Implications
The impact of meat condemnation not only affect individual farmers but to a greater
extent it ha a big impact on the overall GDP which leans upon the livestock industry.
During the study period of this thesis the commercial value of cattle and pig meat
was estimated. Due to offal and carcass losses during condemnation the farmers are
at high stake of of more direct financial loss because the meat can longer be sold,
which in turn affects the total revenue which was expected.
Abattoir meat condemnation affects a diverse number of areas during and post
production, there is need to consider losses anticipated through the feed, labor,
processing. When taking a closer look at the economic implications that comes
along with abattoir meat condemnation there is need to look at the market value of
both the carcass and the offals this will help to estimate the total revenue lost
through condemnation.
A research conducted in Matebeleland on the prevalence of Cystic
echinococcosis( Sungirai M et.al, 2021) estimated that the total direct revenue lost
accumulated to US$ 24,812.43 from carcass and offal condemnation in cattle. This
direct implication has a big impact on the livestock industry.

Contribution of the livestock industry in the country

Livestock in Zimbabwe has many attributes which help them to thrive in adverse
condition such as the extreme temperatures, the low levels of nutritional sates and
also the high prevalence of diseases which span across the country. This
characteristic is a great advantage to the livestock industry as it helps in curbing out
some parasites which cause diseases, disease resistance is a strong suit for
sustainable management. The resistance of from diseases for some of the breeds in
both beef and pig makes their productivity higher thereby attaining food self-
efficiency in the country. Food self-efficiency reduces the risks of malnutrition which
can affect the mass population due to the shortages of protein. It is estimated that in
developing countries