FG Raises Concern Over Livestock Security, Safety in Abia Markets

News in Brief:

—FG raised concern about the security and safety of livestock in Abia markets due to weak oversight allowing diseased animals into the food chain.

—Officials call on the state to establish more veterinary clinics and strengthen surveillance at livestock markets to improve food safety and protect consumers.

The Federal Ministry of Livestock Development have raised concerns over the movement of unhealthy livestock into markets in Abia, warning that weak veterinary coverage could expose consumers to diseased meat and undermine public health.

Officials of the ministry’s Tsetse Fly Surveillance and Control Project raised the alarm following a recent verification exercise conducted across three senatorial districts in the state.

The project’s lead, Gilbert Okoro, said findings from the exercise pointed to serious gaps in animal health regulation, especially around the Lokpanta Cattle Market, which is one of the largest livestock trading hubs in southern Nigeria.

Okoro noted that reports indicated that animals suffering from diseases often find their way into the wider market because there are too few veterinary clinics and an inadequate number of officials to carry out routine inspections and disease surveillance.

He therefore urged the Abia State Government to establish veterinary clinics in each senatorial district to improve disease detection, strengthen monitoring and support food safety. 

While commending Abia’s Governor Alex Otti for improvements in the state’s health sector, he warned that poor veterinary oversight at major livestock markets could erode those gains if animal diseases are not properly checked before meat reaches consumers.

He further decried how the federal veterinary clinic originally approved for Abia under the L-PRES project was not sited at Lokpanta as expected. He argued that the market requires close supervision because of its scale and importance in livestock trade. According to him, the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development can only provide one veterinary clinic per state under its current arrangement, making it necessary for Abia to complement that intervention with its own facilities.

Safety Gaps at Lokpanta

During the inspection, veterinary technician Chimobi Ebisike raised additional concerns about the market’s safety structure. He pointed to the absence of a permanent security presence and a functional veterinary clinic within the facility.

Ebisike stated that emergency response is often delayed because security operatives have to travel from Umuahia whenever incidents occur, allowing problems to escalate before help arrives. He also alleged that some traders administer drugs such as procaine penicillin to weak or sick animals to make them stand before buyers, thereby creating a false impression of health and increasing the sale value.

He said complete control may be difficult in a market as large as Lokpanta, but argued that deploying enough veterinary officers and equipping a proper clinic would reduce unsafe practices. He also called for more funding, stronger implementation of government programmes and closer supervision of the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture to protect consumers from contaminated meat.

Tsetse Fly Infestation and Livestock Health

The Abia exercise is part of a wider federal campaign to curb tsetse fly infestation and other pests that damage livestock productivity. The state government recently said it would work with the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development on the project, which covers Abia’s three senatorial districts and is tied to the broader One Health approach linking animal, human and environmental health.

Okoro said tsetse flies transmit trypanosomiasis, a disease that affects cattle and can also pose risks to humans in affected environments. The official position aligns with the ministry’s wider warning that diseased or unwholesome livestock can enter the food chain when markets and abattoirs lack adequate veterinary supervision.

Tsetse infection in livestock does not mean every product from the animal is automatically unsafe or that trypanosomiasis can be transmitted from the meat to humans, but it raises serious concerns about food safety.

For consumers, the bigger concern is not ordinary meat consumption alone, but the wider public-health threat that comes from weak market inspection systems, indiscriminate drug use, and the slaughter of sick animals.