Challenges in the Butchery Industry: Potential Opportunities for Business in Ghana

The purpose of this study was to assess the working environment of butchers and identify potential business opportunities. Sensitization meetings, focus group discussions and semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather information from butchers in 8 markets in Accra. It was realized that butchery is a male and largely Muslim-dominated business. A little over 70% of respondents had some form of education, with 49.1% having basic level education. A number of issues were of concern to the butchers, with the most important being the use of the CFA francs for business transaction and the siting of slaughter facilities with over 85% of respondents indicating these as their utmost concerns. The potential business opportunities uncovered by the study included innovative meat transportation and storage, the huge opportunity for increased local production of animals, and the establishment of a butchery school, or a butchery module in one of the tertiary institutions or research centers

Black Soldier Fly (Hermitia illucens) Larvae Meal as Alternative Protein in Broiler Production in Ghana

Feed cost has been a major challenge to the competitiveness of the poultry industry of Ghana due mainly to high cost of proteins. Insect larvae meals seem convenient alternatives however their use on commercial scale is unknown in Ghana. Three 8-week feeding trial using three isonitrogenous, isocaloric diets in a three-phase feeding strategy involving 1320 broiler DOCs was conducted. BSFLM was used as replacement for fishmeal and as partial replacement for soybean meal to determine its effect on broiler productivity, profitability and carcass measurements. The results indicated that replacing fishmeal with BSFLM significantly improved weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and production efficiency factor (PEF). No detrimental effect was observed on carcass and specific organ measurements. Using the partial budgeting approach on a 500-bird estimation an increase of one thousand, one hundred and eleven Ghana cedis (GH₵1,111.00) was obtained when the fishmeal was replaced with BSFLM. Also, an increase of four hundred and sixty-seven Ghana cedis (GH₵467.00) was estimated when soybean meal was partially replaced with BSFLM. It was concluded that BSFLM can be used to improve the productivity and profitability of broiler production

Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Campylobacter jejuni in raw retail chicken meat in Metropolitan Accra, Ghana

Although, Campylobacter spp. are a major cause of foodborne gastroenteritis, its occurrence and antimicrobial resistance traits have not been well defined in low income countries, particularly in Africa. In this study, retail chicken was sampled (n = 400) between February 2019 to January 2020 in Metropolitan Accra, Ghana, to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Campylobacter jejuni. Raw chicken samples were obtained in wet markets (n = 315) and supermarkets (n = 85) and each subjected to direct plating and broth enrichment according to standard culture methods for Campylobacter spp. with the identity of presumptive positive colonies confirmed by MALDI-TOF. The susceptibility of isolates to antibiotics commonly used for campylobacteriosis in humans (in order to reflect the One Health significance of Campylobacter at the human-food interface) were then assessed by disc diffusion. A prevalence of 38.3% was recorded and all isolates were confirmed as Campylobacter jejuni. Enrichment yielded 127 positives while direct plating yielded 55 positives with low level of agreement in detection between these assays (Kappa = 0.15). Among samples positive by direct plating, the mean Campylobacter count was 1.9 log10 CFU/g (sd ±0.8). About 13% (7/55) of the samples positive by direct plating contained counts of 3log and above. Samples from the wet market yielded more positives than those from the supermarket with the rate of isolation from wet markets being 1.6 times that of the supermarket. Among 182 isolates characterized for their antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance to fluoroquinolones was 99.5%, tetracyclines 100% and macrolides 26.9%. Multi-drug resistance was also observed in 26.9% of the screened isolates. The findings point to a potential high level of exposure of humans to Campylobacter jejuni through chicken meat and thus the need for education on hygienic preparation and handling of raw chicken. High rates of resistance to classes of antimicrobials critically important for treating Campylobacter infections in humans; fluroquinolones and macrolides, affirm the need for stronger regulatory control of antimicrobials and enhanced antimicrobial stewardship in chicken production