Better lives through livestock
The many roads from farm to fork:
Contrasting chicken systems and safety in
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and the UK
Theo Knight-Jones
Senior scientist, ILRI Tanzania
London Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) team meeting
30 July 2020

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Foodborne disease burden
• Globally foodborne disease has a disease burden comparable to major infectious
diseases (TB, malaria, HIV/AIDS)
• 1 in 10 in the world affected per year, ½ million deaths per year – under 5s carrying 30-40%
of burden
• Africa most affected (WHO-FERG, 2015)
• Urban food markets in Africa: Incentivizing food safety using a pull-push approach
• Understand the risks
• Can consumer demand drive safer food?

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UK - contrast
• >1billion poultry slaughtered/year
• 50kg per year per person
• Biggest farms >1million birds
• Biggest abattoirs >1 million birds/week
• Parent company manages/contracts most of the supply chain
• Heavily regulated + private audits
• Consumers are detached from a highly specialized production
system and have limited understanding
• But high accountable to consumer opinion and food scares,
mediated through supermarkets

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UK - contrast
• Campylobacteriosis – endemic within
the system
• Well-understood - Difficult to control
given the system
• 250,000 cases/yr >100 deaths/yr
• >50% chicken point of sale carcasses
contaminated

5
UK - contrast
Graphics: The Guardian, The Sun
Aggregated=mixing
• Campylobacteriosis – endemic within
the system
• Well-understood - Difficult to control
given the system
• 250,000 cases/yr
• >50% chicken point of sale carcasses
contaminated
Processing/wholesale/Retail

6
Chicken consumption in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso, a low-income country with:
• More than 20 million, 2.5 million people in capital, Ouagadougou
• Poultry meat contributes 16% of the meat consumed in Burkina Faso (CAPES,
2007), 8 kg per year per person (UK 50 kg)

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Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou

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Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
Most high & middle
income men stop for
beer and chicken
almost daily

9
Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
FARM
TRANSMISSION
MARKET
SLAB SLAUGHTER
TRANSPORT

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Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
FARM
TRANSMISSION
MARKET
SLAB SLAUGHTER
Carcass:
50% Salmonella
70% Campy
Wash water:
100% Salmonella (Kagambega, 2018)

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Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
FARM
TRANSMISSION
MARKET
SLAB SLAUGHTER
STREET RESTAURANTS
75% OF CONSUMPTION-
mostly men
40% unacceptable
bacterial load (Somda
et al. 2018)
Burden of disease:
Little known, being estimated
Clearly big potential

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Ouagadougou – chicken consumption
0
5
10
15
20
J F M A M J J A S O N D
%
CHICKEN CONSUMPTION THROUGH THE YEAR

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Ouagadougou – chicken consumption
0
5
10
15
20
J F M A M J J A S O N D
%
CHICKEN CONSUMPTION THROUGH THE YEAR
Distribution of chicken in household low and
middle income
Gizzard for
Male head of
house

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Summary - risky practices identified in Burkina chicken
value chain
• Inappropriate drugs – antimicrobials during production; Tramadol – an opioid
painkiller to make birds appear fit and healthy in market; carbure – acetylene-based
during plucking; paracetamol during cooking (reduce cooking time)!
• Unsanitary conditions at slaughter slabs
• Poor handling carcasses before cooking (dirty water for washing)
• Cross contamination between raw vegetables and chicken

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Chicken consumption in Ethiopia
• 110 million people, Harar 150,000; Dire Dawa 440,000
• Low consumption of poultry - 0.66kg poultry consumed per person per year (East
Africa average 1.64 kg) (FAO, 2019)
• c.f. Burkina 8 kg per year per person (UK 50 kg)
• Chicken consumed on special occasions – religious holidays, weddings…
• Bit like Christmas Turkey in UK
• Doro wot – slightly ceremonial preparation
• Little market slaughter and street food
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0984/4296/articles/Caviar_dor
o_wot_1000x.jpg?v=1498693512

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Ethiopia
https://addisfortune.net/columns/political-unrest-inflation-
colour-easter-market/
Photo: Arie Havelaar
Village
production
To markets
Live bird taken home
to slaughter and
prepare
• Compare to UK
• Food safety risks largely occur at home processing
• And given small consumption, likely small burden (being assessed)

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Summary – food safety risks
• Food safety microbial risks and burdens vary greatly and are clearly dependent on local habits and
systems
• In the UK it concerns controlling contamination within mass-throughput industrial systems – and most of
the population are exposed
• Control key points farm to fork
• In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso concerns poor facilities, practices for street food and market slaughter –
probably mostly affecting men that eat out [infants are more susceptible but consume less]
• Control at markets or kill step at restaurants
• In provincial Ethiopian cities processing and risks are within the household, consumption and exposure
may be low but concern general household food preparation and hygiene
• Hard to improve all households compared to a few processors

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Authors/Acknowledgements
Urban food markets in Africa: Incentivizing food safety using a pull-push approach
Field studies:
Sinaly Diarra, Michel Dione, Charlotte Konkobo/Yameogo,
Guy Ilboudo, Kristina Roesel, Valérie Raymonde Lallogo, Laurencia Ouattara
Kebede Amenu, Megarsa Bedasa, Mitiku Wamile, Hable Worku, Kemal Kasim, Mukerem Taha, Lina Mego
Project team: Marcel Zwietering, Coen van Wagenberg, Arie Havelaar, Silvia Alonso, Ralph Roothaert, Gemma
Tacken, Ruerd Ruben, Kebede Amenu, James Noah Ssemanda, Claudia Ganser, Srinivasan Ramasamy, Michelle
Danyluk and Delia Grace Randolph

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