Abstract

Beef and its products can become contaminated with organisms like zoonotic Salmonella spp. through contact with faeces, hides and other environmental objects in the urban slaughterhouse value chain. Religious, traditional and socioeconomical practices among abattoir workers could also be contributory factors, world over. The one health integration of animal, human and environmental health may prevent and reduce contamination and zoonotic risks. The study aimed to interrogate beef Salmonella contamination and staff cultural practices in urban Ilorin slaughterhouses with the hindsight of holistic health application to ensure food safety. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four slaughterhouses in Urban-Ilorin, Nigeria, to collect 414 samples for Salmonella contamination determination and its antimicrobial sensitivity tests using conventional isolation/analytic methods and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Seventy-two questionnaires were administered to assess staff knowledge, attitude and practices. Descriptive statistics were employed in the study. An overall multiple antimicrobial resistant (AMR) Salmonella contamination of 5.31% was recorded, while, 1.9%, 1.0%, 0.5%, 0.2%, 0.2%, 0%, 0%,1.5% and 0% were obtained for muscle, lung, liver, large/small intestine, hide, mesenteric lymph-node, kidney, cattle faeces, and human stool, respectively. The genes invA (100%) and tetA (82%) were identified in the isolated Salmonella spp. The staff cultural assessment was found to be poor (57.46%), poor (53.57%) and moderate (77.16%) respectively for knowledge, attitude and practice of food safety procedures. The contamination of beef and the environment by zoonotic Salmonella, which could have been predisposed by the low KAP of urban slaughterhouse workers in this study, underscores the need for a one-health approach to the production of wholesome meat to safeguard public health.

Key words: Beef, Salmonella-contamination, slaughterhouse-workers'-cultural-practices, food safety, One-health, Nigeria