Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Abattoir Workers Toward Abattoirs Waste Management in Eastern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: During meat production, a large amount of wastes are generated that consist of feces, tissue waste, blood, fat, bone, animal trimmings, intestinal content, and urine that can be a potential risk to humans and the environment. Low knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practice can lead to poor waste management, which is more severe in developing countries like Ethiopia. Thus, the current study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of abattoir workers toward abattoir waste management in Eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Eastern Ethiopia’ abattoirs from 1st to 30th of January, 2020. Two hundred and sixty-seven (n = 267) abattoir workers in 4 selected abattoirs (Haramaya University, Haramaya town, Harar town and Dire Dawa City administration) were interviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical package. Pearson’s correlation was used to determine the strength between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice, and attitude and practice. A P-value of .05 was considered as a cut-off point for statistical significance. RESULTS: This study revealed that 203 (76%) of the respondents had less knowledge, 69 (26%) had a positive attitude and 43 (16%) of them had a good practice toward abattoir waste management. There was a statistically significant difference between socio-demographic characteristics (education, work experience, and salary) and knowledge, attitudes and practices of the study participants. This study found moderate positive correlations between knowledge and attitude [r = .404, P = .013], weak positive correlations between knowledge and practice [r = .229, P = .009], and strong positive correlations between attitude and practice [r = .717, P = .023] of the abattoir workers toward waste management. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that more than one-quarter, less than one-quarter, and about 3-quarter of the participants had less knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practice, respectively toward abattoir waste management. Therefore, regulatory bodies and other relevant industries must implement effective control measures that can be important to increase the knowledge, attitude, and practices of abattoir workers toward waste management.