Animal Protein intake and the Effect of age on the level of Protein Consumption in five Local Government Areas of Niger State

Abstract

A household survey was conducted using questionnaires to assess Animal Protein Intake within different families. The results indicated that items such as ‘bush meat', beef, fresh fish, eggs, goat meat, cow milk, poultry meat and mutton were consumed by at least 90% of family members. Rabbit meat, hides and skin and meat offal were consumed by 70.49, 64.87, and 58.78% of family members respectively. Pork was hardly consumed by any member of a family because of the predominant Muslim population in the study area. Fathers usually had greater proportions of most of the items during meal. Mothers, children and sick members of the households were not usually given any consideration based on their physiological status and needs. Some of the items such as eggs, milk and poultry meat were not consumed in reasonable quantities due to poor economic situation of the family. The results suggested that except for the fathers, other groups such as mothers and children were consuming animal protein below the quantity required by them.

JARD Vol. 2 2003: pp. 93-99