Safe Food, Fair Food: Summary of findings
within sheep value chains in the Atsbi and
Abergelle districts of the Ethiopian
Highlands
Barbara Rischkowsky, Tamsin Dewé, Kristina Rösel,
Multi-stakeholder Workshop for Targeting Action Research on Atsbi sheep
and Abergelle goat Value Chains in Tigray, Ethiopia
Mekelle, 19-20 March 2013

Safe Food, Fair Food
 Protecting the health of poor consumers
and
 Safeguarding livelihoods of poor livestock
keepers and other value chain actors

Background
 Looking at risks to food safety and
nutrition within sheep and goat value
chains
 Trying to identify opportunities for
further research and intervention
 Ultimate goal is to ensure adequate
intake of safe and nutritious foods, while
protecting the livelihoods of poor value
chain actors

Activities
 Rapid assessment conducted
alongside rapid VCA at each site
 Participatory rural appraisals
(PRAs) with producer and
consumer groups at each site
 Focus group discussions (FGDs)
with mothers of young children
at Abergelle Tigray and Atsbi
 Topics included animal health,
consumption patterns, food
preparation, and perceptions of
quality and safety of sheep meat

Results: all sites
 Animal health
– Disease accounted for 30-
40% all deaths
– Major diseases differed
between Abergelle and Atsbi
– Starvation and predation also
major causes of death

Results: all sites
 Sheep and goat meat consumption
– Very similar between sites
– Peaks at major national and religious festivals
– Low in intervening periods

Results: all sites
 Risks to safety of sheep and goat meat
– Emergency slaughter and consumption of diseased
animals occurs
– Reported link between meat-eating and stomach pain
+/- diarrhoea: intolerance or foodborne disease?
 Risk mitigation
– Don’t eat animals affected by specific diseases
– Careful slaughter practices
– Smell, colour and texture used to assess quality and
safety
– Cooking of ‘suspect’ meat thoroughly
 Nutritional issues
– Lack of meat in the diet

Results: all sites
 Sheep and goat milk consumption
– Very important in Abergelle
– Atsbi is predominantly meat site
– Consumption seasonal: depends on combination
of lambing/kidding and feed availability

Results: all sites
 Risks to safety of sheep and goat
milk
– Some consumption of raw milk
(Atsbi: children drinking directly
from the animal)
 Risk mitigation
– Don’t consume ‘suspect’ milk
– Milk usually boiled
– Processing to butter, yoghurt,
cheese

Results: Abergelle Amhara
 Sick animals  Deaths

Results: Abergelle Tigray
 Sick animals  Deaths

Results: Abergelle
 Risky food practices
– Association between milk consumption and
‘malaria’: coincidence of seasons, or
unrecognised zoonotic disease?
 Risk mitigation
– Meat considered unsafe is trimmed and/or
boiled thoroughly
– Smoking of milking containers
 Nutritional issues
– Men given highest quality meat
– Highly seasonal milk consumption
– Women don’t drink whole milk: unlikely that
butter and other milk products are making
up the nutritional deficit
– Drinking milk associated with earlier onset
of puberty in girls

Results: Atsbi
 Sick animals  Deaths

Results: Atsbi
 Risky food practices
– Some consumption of raw meat
– Children drinking milk directly
from the animal
 Risk-mitigating practices
– Small ruminant milk not a major
part of the diet?
– Milk otherwise boiled
– Processing of milk into yoghurt
and butter

Conclusions
 Meat
– Risky consumption practices occur at
all sites but are often mitigated by
cooking
– Better if all meat and offal is well-
cooked - some loss of nutritional
quality, but large reduction in risks
– Infrequent meat consumption
probably a greater risk to nutritional
status (especially Abergelle) than to
food safety

Conclusions
 Milk
– Abergelle: potential for increasing milk
production, possible association
between milk and disease, and
gender imbalance in benefits/risks
indicate need for further work
– Atsbi: drinking raw milk is a potential
health risk for children. How
frequently does this practice occur,
what are the disease risks, and what
could be done about it?

Safe Food, Fair Food
 Tamsin Dewé, Consultant
tamsindewe@gmail.com
 Kristina Rösel, Project Co-Ordinator
k.rosel@cgiar.org
All photo credits to ILRI/ Tamsin Dewé unless otherwise indicated