Typology of the Cameroon Traditional Slaughterhouses Based on Hygiene Practices

In order to characterise traditional slaughterhouses, an inquiry was carried out in Northern Cameroon.A questionnaire was administered to 469 assistant butchers chosen from 15 traditional slaughterhouses in the zone.The inquiry enabled us to evaluate the perception of basic rules of hygiene by these assistant butchers in the chosen slaughtering sites.A chart enabled us to list out all the hygiene practices in relation to the guide to good hygiene practice and the application of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles in the slaughtering and cutting activities (GGHPAHPSCA).Multivariate analysis was applied on the data collected from the questionnaires and the inventory charts.Accordingly, the understanding of basic hygiene rules among employees of the selected slaughterhouses was identified as fairly good (67%), average (26%) and poor (5%).The best conception of hygiene practices was attributed to those employees with at least a primary education and the bad practices to those who were illiterate.The performance of good hygiene practices was fairly well observed at the Garoua council slaughterhouse, while the average and bad practices of hygiene were linked to traditional slaughterhouses having a partial and bad cleaning implementation, respectively.Whatever the types of traditional slaughterhouses, the hygiene practices common to slaughterhouses of Northern Cameroon were essentially linked to the poor management of personnel and the treatment process of carcasses during production.