ORIGINAL RESEARCH A 6-year survey of pathological conditions of slaughtered animals at Zango abattoir in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria Clement B. I. Alawa & I. Etukudo-Joseph & Judith N. Alawa Accepted: 19 July 2010 / Published online: 24 August 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract A 6-year retrospective study (2000–2005) of animals slaughtered at the Zango abattoir in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria was carried out to determine disease conditions encountered in slaughtered animals. Records kept at the abattoir were analysed. A total of 69,307 cattle, 3,820 goats and 1,763 sheep were slaughtered for the period under study. Of the 69,307 cattle slaughtered for the period, 22,459 (32.41%) were males and 46,848 (67.59%) were females, while 1,763 sheep were slaughtered com- prising of 506 (28.70%) males and 1,257 (71.30%) females, and 3,820 goats made up of 1,212 (31.73%) males and 2,608 (68.27%) were females. The major disease and/or pathological conditions were helminthosis (fascioliasis, haemonchosis and paramphistomosis) 16.20%, Streptothri- cosis 4.15%, Pericarditis 2.20%, liver cirrhosis 2.08%, abscesses 1.04%, pneumonia 0.14%, nephritis 0.05% and Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, Tuberculosis and Nocardiosis 0.01% each. Out of the 15,075 infected organs, 13,314 (88.38%) were partially salvaged while 1,751 (11.6%) whole organs were condemned. A total of 1,239 pregnant cows, 221 pregnant ewes and 637 pregnant does were slaughtered, representing a foetal wastage of 2.65% for cattle, 17.58% for sheep and 24.43% for goats. The result of this study apart from serving as an indicator of field disease condition also demonstrates cases of serious losses in production due to slaughter of pregnant animals especially for sheep and goats. Keywords Meat organs . Abattoir . Condemnation . Slaughtered . Nigeria Introduction Meat is a perishable commodity, and poor handling daily can exert both public health and economic toll on any nation, and there should be no room for complacency over problems of meat hygiene, either in developed or in the developing countries. Marketing and sale of meat require that animals be inspected before and after slaughter, that meat hygiene service functions in such a way as to satisfy consumers and at the same time safeguard public health and animal hygiene (FAO 1994; Kebede 2010). In developing countries like Nigeria, outlets for the purchase of meat are numerous and are not adequately monitored (Opara et al. 2005). It has been observed that most meat slaughtered is not inspected by veterinary surgeons in Nigeria (Aliu 2004). Very poor meat inspection facilities and uncooperative attitude of butchers has also been reported in Nigerian abattoirs (Aladi 1999) as part of the problems militating against proper meat inspec- tion. The role of adequate meat inspection as a public health C. B. I. Alawa (*) National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmadu Bello University, Shika-Zaria, Nigeria e-mail: c.b.i.alawa@napri-ng.org e-mail: ca73@cornell.edu I. Etukudo-Joseph Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria J. N. Alawa Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Trop Anim Health Prod (2011) 43:127–131 DOI 10.1007/s11250-010-9664-5