Review: Sheep and Goat Meat Production Constraints in Ethiopia

The annual meat production from small ruminants is relatively small compared to the number of heads and serves as a source of food, manure, raw materials, cash income, and foreign exchange earnings and has social and cultural values. The live stock sub sector contributes about 45% of the agricultural GDP and 16% of the national Gross Domestic Production (GDP) (IGAD, 2010). However, the current levels of contributions of the livestock sector in Ethiopia, is very low. The amount of foreign exchange earnings from livestock and livestock products are also much lower than would be expected, given the size of the livestock population (Berhanu et al., 2006). Marketing and infrastructure that affect the livestock potentials (Addisu, 2015) Abattoirs provide information on the epidemiology of diseases on livestock, to know to what extent the public is exposed to certain zoonotic diseases and estimate the financial losses incurred through condemnation of affected organs and carcasses.

Keywords: meat, organ, production, sheep, goat, zoonotic, diseases, livestock, market.