Project Description

The tremendous growth in urban livestock production and the related processing of livestock products is the basis for a concern over environmental and food safety issues, and hence ultimately for human health In Tanzania, like other East African countries, agriculture and livestock is a major source of income for a major part of the population.  Recently a move from subsistence farming to small scale commercial farming is taking place, and a concentration of livestock production in peri-urban areas is on the increase. The high urban population growth rate has fuelled the demand for increased food production, not least for livestock products, and urban agriculture and livestock is said to be the second largest source of employment. However, increased peri-urban farming is not without problems. It puts a pressure on the infrastructure related to water and sanitation, it threatens the environment with increased biological and chemical pollution, and it increases the transmission rates of infectious diseases between animals and from animals to man (zoonoses), either directly or through the food.  In addition to the basic information on human attitudes towards animals established in the pilot phase of the project, more information is needed with regards to welfare of individual animals in the urban and peri-urban farms, during transportation and at slaughter. Consequently, this project was designed to investigate more on the welfare of cattle, pigs and poultry kept in the peri-urban areas, during transport and in the market places. Also more social studies will be done on methods that are culturally acceptable means in Tanzania which can be used to improve awareness and attitudes towards animals and their welfare.