Anthrax disease: Stop eating meat from sick animals, NCDC warns Nigerians

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has warned Nigerians against consuming meat of sick animals as they may contain anthrax.

Anthrax is an infection caused by the spore-forming bacteria, Bacillus anthracis.

It typically affects ruminants such as cows, sheep, and goats.

It is a zoonotic disease — transmissible from contaminated animals to humans.

Humans can get infected if they handle or are involved in the slaughter of a sick animal, or are in contact with contaminated animal products.

The federal ministry of agriculture and rural development had said it confirmed cases of anthrax in some farm animals in Niger state.

Speaking on Tuesday in an interview on Channels Television, Ifedayo Adetifa, NCDC director general, called on Nigerians to be cautious of the meat they consume.

“What we are saying is do not eat sick animals at all. Sick animals contain anthrax or animals that have died of anthrax contain anthrax and consumption of any of that product…anthrax is present on their skin, is present in their hair, is present in their meat,” Adetifa said.

“So, consumption of any of these products, even the people who work with hides and skin who are not even working on skin for the purpose of consumption, are at the risk of anthrax if that skin came from a dead animal.

“So, at this point in time where we have a confirmed case, we are just saying, look out for the meat that you buy.

“If you like bush meat, maybe this is a time to take a break from bush meat if you did not catch it yourself because what we don’t want is people tend to pick up either animals that are near or have died freshly with a view of selling them for consumption.

“And similarly for livestock, even if they are killed in abattoirs and all of that is, we are asking that animals be properly inspected.

“People who own animals should not take sick animals for slaughter and if animals are slaughtered and it is noticed that their blood is not clotting, there is bloating more than usual or the meat starts to deteriorate pretty quickly, this is likely to be the carcass of anthrax infected animal and should not be sold for consumption.”