Assessment of reproductive categories of cattle slaughtered in Kalerwe and KCCA slaughter houses in Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

Slaughter of pregnant cattle has remained a global challenge and this imposes threat to animal industry. Slaughtering of pregnant cattle doesn’t only affect the animal welfare but also the economy at large. Additionally, the demand for animal protein is on increment as the population of the country increases and this doesn’t match with the rate of growth of ruminant production. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the categories of cattle slaughtered in both Kalerwe and KCCA slaughter facilities since no information was known. It took a period of 20 days each slaughter facility taking 10 days of the study period. It took place from 22nd December 2020 to 10 January 2021. And the details captured were; number of cattle slaughtered daily, the numerical details of female cattle encountered and their pregnancy statuses, the ages of the fetuses estimated through taking their crown rump lengths. The total number of fetuses encountered per slaughter facility indicated the prevalence of slaughtering of pregnant cattle in that particular facility. The study revealed that, the total numbers of cattle slaughtered in Kalerwe and KCCA were 1754 and 2958 respectively. The proportions of slaughtering female cattle in Kalerwe and KCCA were 55.7% and 53.0% respectively. Out of the total numbers of females slaughtered in the slaughter facilities, Kalerwe has the prevalence of slaughtering of pregnant cattle as 58.0% whereas it was 55.2% in KCCA. The most affected gestational stage was second trimester with proportion being 49.7% in Kalerwe. And the same applied to KCCA slaughter facility with the second trimester taking 48.3%. The least affected was the first trimester. This necessitates the need for further research on the farmers’ choices of selling pregnant cattle for slaughter so that a more friendly approach is created to solve the issue of slaughtering pregnant cattle.