This document summarizes food safety risks associated with chicken consumption in the UK, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia. In the UK, Campylobacter contamination is endemic within highly regulated industrial chicken production systems. In Burkina Faso, unsafe practices at live bird markets and street food stalls pose risks, potentially affecting many men. In Ethiopia, risks occur primarily within households during occasional home processing of small numbers of chickens for special occasions.

1. 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

2. 2
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?

3. 3
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

4. 4
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. 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. 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)

7. 7
Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou

8. 8
Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
Most high & middle
income men stop for
beer and chicken
almost daily

9. 9
Chicken consumption in Ouagadougou
FARM
TRANSMISSION
MARKET
SLAB SLAUGHTER
TRANSPORT

10. 10
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

12. 12
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

13. 13
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

15. 15
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

16. 16
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

19. THANK YOU
THANK YOU