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Prevalence of plastic and hardware foreign bodies among goats at Malawi markets
Airs, Paul M.; Tinsley, Jonathan H.I.; Mvula, Winchester; Ventura-Cordero, Javier; Takahashi, Taro; Nalivata, Patson C.; Van Wyk, J.A. (Jan Aucamp); Morgan, Eric R.; Safalaoh, Andrews C.L.
Smallholder goat production plays a major role in rural livelihoods and food security in
Malawi, but suffers from drastic and unpredictable production losses. While goat production is
closely linked to small-scale local markets for slaughter and butchering, the perspectives of butchers
and their potential as a source of animal health information are largely untapped. Butchers can
provide insights into goat health status at slaughter as well as issues that go unseen before slaughter,
such as the presence of indigestible foreign bodies (IFBs). IFBs include solid materials such as plastics
and hardware (metals, stones, and other hard objects) that cause foreign body syndrome and can lead
to impaction, oedema, malnutrition, and death. To estimate the presence of IFBs, 150 market stand
butchers were surveyed across five districts in Malawi, focusing on a distinction between hardware
and single-use plastics, which are still widely present in Malawi despite bans on production. Most
butchers found plastic IFBs (80.7%), with over half (56.7%) reporting plastic IFBs recently among the
past five slaughters. Hardware IFBs were less common, reported by 45.3% of butchers. While some
butchers commented on the impact of IFBs on meat quality metrics ex-post, the majority observed
no differences. While butchers unanimously considered health to be an important characteristic
when sourcing goats, 70.7% consider injury status to be less important or not important. Overall,
this study highlights the issue of anthropogenic waste pollution on goat production in Malawi and
demonstrates the potential for the surveillance of goat health at market.
Description:
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Original anonymised tabulated data are provided in supplemental File S1, blank copies of questionnaires are available upon request.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION: TABLE S1. Base demographics of respondents and areas surveyed per district; TABLE S2. Sourcing of goats by district and distance travelled to market, TABLE S3. Plastic and hardware IFB prevalence among market butchers in different Malawi districts, FIGURE S1: seasonal goat sales rank across study group. FILE S1: Anonymous raw questionnaire responses.