People eating goat skins in Mzimba

Some villagers in Mzimba are eating goat and cow skins, exposing themselves to chemicals that may cause health problems.

It has been observed that some people in Mzimba are eating animal skins as they cannot afford to buy food.

But according to a clinical officer at Embangweni Mission hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity, animal skins do not have any nutritional value to human health and that some of the animals are killed while they are sick hence they harbour dangerous chemicals.

“In fact, it is not advisable for you to consume animal skins in the sense that some of the animals have skin diseases. Some of these skin diseases are such that boiling the skins ordinarily, may not kill the bacteria. Some of the animals because of the ailments that they have gone through, are sometimes treated by way of injection with chemicals.”

“People don’t allow these chemicals to complete its cycle and be removed from the body; they sometimes go ahead to kill these animals. So, if you consume the skin, the tendency is that you are consuming the chemicals directly because the skin part of the animal retains most of the harmful substances,” he said.

The clinician added that the skin is the major protective organ of the body hence it harbours many harmful things which are dangerous to people’s health.

He then advised government to put in place policies that would reduce the consumption of animal skins in the country.