The Cattle Invasion of Urban Areas is Opening Doors to a New Health Crisis
Cattle and other livestock have become a massive nuisance in urban areas, disrupting traffic and generating filth. But there are serious public health concerns that Ghanaians should be more concerned about
When the COVID-19 pandemic landed in Ghana, it was hoped that attention to Zoonotic diseases, i.e., diseases passed from animals to humans, and the One Health policy would benefit from a renewed focus on these public health threats. Six years on, nothing has changed, especially from a funding and awareness standpoint. Some would argue we’ve gotten more careless.
While COVID-19 originated far from Ghana’s shores, we are still at the doorstep of grave disease threats because of our subpar implementation of One Health, which deals with the way multiple sectors on the human and animal healthcare front intersect to achieve better public health outcomes.
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This concern has been typified by the increased complaints about cattle activity in dense urban areas like Accra and Kumasi, which host about a third of Ghana’s population. These complaints have intensified in the last month, partly attributed to the upcoming Eid al-Adha celebration. Videos of show cattle roaming and grazing in dense urban areas like Kanda, Avenor and even Labone.
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But residents familiar with urban areas know cattle and other livestock activity is year-round. For example, in April 2025, the Kumasi mayor threatened to slaughter cattle in his metropolis and use them to feed prisoners if they were not kept in check.
The public health concerns of the cattle lawlessness
While the cattle are obviously unsightly in urban areas, damage property and even constitute a road safety hazard, the most pressing concern about their proliferation should be a public health one.
In Ghana, we see these animals and humans interact with little sanitation or other precautions. The environment is normally crowded, providing ample opportunities for the spread of pathogens. In the Harvard University research report titled Animal Markets and Zoonotic Disease in Ghana, findings noted that disease risk occurs primarily at habitat sites, not later when animals are killed or processed at markets, which brings into focus the issue of keeping them in urban areas where dense populations work and sleep.
There is a risk of disease transmission at all stages of animal handling, which will be easy to spread in our urban context, with poor sanitation and monitoring. The Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has raised an alarm about temporary livestock markets set up ahead of this year’s Eid celebrations and demanded due process, but has not taken any concrete regulatory action on the growing proliferation of livestock. The same could be said of the various local governments where some of these cattle hotspots are emerging.
The Veterinary Services Department has rightly noted the lack of biosecurity measures and animal disease surveillance systems, raising concerns about the possible spread of zoonotic and transboundary animal diseases. It has one of the biggest responsibilities in this situation, given that the Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83) mandates it to regulate activities that may threaten animal and public health.
What zoonotic diseases can emerge from cattle?
Anthrax is the one zoonotic disease from cattle that most people will be aware of. It is also potentially the most dangerous. People usually get anthrax when they come into contact with spores in infected animals or contaminated animal products.
People can get anthrax spores in a cut or scrape in the skin, breathe them in, or eat food or drink water contaminated with spores. Mad cow disease and rabies are infections that can cause death.
Other zoonotic diseases from cattle to note include Bovine tuberculosis, Q Fever and Vesicular stomatitis.
For zoonotic threats from livestock in general, given that pigs, goats, and sheep are also kept haphazardly in some urban areas, swine influenza, brucellosis, and tuberculosis are diseases that have been cited by researchers published in the US' National Library of Medicine.
How do we reduce these zoonotic threats?
Though we have laws that govern businesses, markets, sanitation and livestock, there seems to be a big gap in public awareness.
This awareness must increase, not just spanning law and order, but also the dire public health implications of the disorder we are currently seeing.
The average urban dweller needs to be educated on the disease risks from having cattle roam freely next to eateries, bus stations and homes so they can better protect themselves and, most importantly, demand accountability from those given power to regulate our urban areas.
This will be a strong starting point that will cause the government to actually take the more proactive elements of One Health more seriously, with better funding and streamlined mandates.
Inspections of livestock, quarantines, extension work and the like cost money and require the kind of political will that only comes from the Executive in our political context.
Most importantly, we need to see a baseline level of enforcement at the local government level with fines, arrests and closures where necessary. Only then will we start to see some progress in mitigating the risk of zoonotic disease transmission in urban areas.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Yen.com.gh
Source: YEN.com.gh
