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The unethical act of slaughtering pregnant animals in a bid to provide meat for human consumption is becoming rampant in many abattoirs, the result of which may be economic loss and unavailability of animal proteins for the populace in the nearest future. In this study, a survey was carried out to determine the proportion of foetuses destroyed due to the act of slaughtering pregnant cows. During the survey, a total of 71,898 heads of cattle were slaughtered between June to December 2014 and 28,067 which represent 39% were cow. A total of 28,067 uteri were examined and 10,078 representing 35.9% were gravid uteri. The result of the study showed that a reasonable number of slaughtered cows were pregnant. This gave an opportunity to analyze the economic implications of the act of slaughtering pregnant cows and also create awareness of lots of good hereditary traits that would have been wasted due to this unwholesome act, and also forecast future animal protein shortage as cattle provide a reasonable amount of protein supply to the populace in this part of Nigeria.

Keywords: Bovine, Foetal, wastage, awareness, protein, malnutrition.

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Citation: Ogunbodede MA, Oladele GM (2016). Wastage of bovine conceptus through indiscriminate slaughter of pregnant cows at Bodija central abattoir Ibadan. J. Agric. Crop Res. 4(4): 60-65.