Poor hygiene, facilities, and policies at slaughterhouses: a key threat to public health and environment

Maintenance of standard hygiene, facilities, and compliance of policies is mandatory at slaughterhouses to produce safe meat and violate those factors that attribute high risk to public health and environment. The absence of data on slaughterhouse management in Bangladesh triggers interest to conduct the present study. Thus, we carried out a cross-sectional study on 35 slaughterhouses to reveal overall status in the context of hygiene, facilities, and policies at Sylhet Sadar Upazila in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh. We identified and included 65 items in the questionnaire and arranged them based on the three sections as hygiene (30), facility (22), and policy (13). This survey revealed that 12 out of 30 items under the standard hygiene section scored good, and the remaining 18 essential items were non-existent to poorly implemented. Under the facility section, two items among 22 remarked good, and the rest 20 items were absent or inadequate. Similarly, only one item out of 13 scored good under the policy section, and others lacked recommended rules and regulations. This study highlighted that none of the slaughterhouses was at standard level; instead they were poor in the maintenance of standard hygiene, facilities, and operational policies, which is considered as a severe threat to food safety, public health, and the environment in the study area.