The public has been cautioned against killing and eating unhealthy animals.

This is because eating such animals puts humans at risk of getting infected by the diseases that the animals were suffering.

Dr. Kwadwo Obeng-Wiredu, in-charge of the Greater Accra Region, Ghana Veterinary Services (GVS), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said it was unfortunate that some people believed cooking sick animals made them safe to eat.

He said there had been cases where people had gotten infections through eating unwholesome meat and stressed, that under no circumstances should sick animals be slaughtered for human consumption.

Dr. Obeng Wiredu urged the public to ensure that meat they bought was certified by the GVS and thus, safe for human consumption.

He urged people involved in animal husbandry to always ensure veterinary care for their animals, in order to keep them healthy as much as possible and added, that the GVS was well resourced to ensure good veterinary service was ever available.

The senior veterinary officer cautioned that farmers should quickly report epidemic outbreaks to the GVS, instead of killing sick animals and selling their meat off to the public.

He said by doing so, public health was seriously compromised, whilst the GVS was also denied the opportunity to diagnose and contain disease outbreaks in domestic animals.

Touching on rabies, Dr. Obeng-Wiredu said currently, free rabies treatment for children who had been bitten by dogs was available at the Korlebu Teaching Hospital.

He said parents and guardians should therefore access the facility whenever they had a child getting bitten by a dog, but cautioned, "the provision exists only for children."

Dr. Obeng-Wiredu reiterated the need for people to report dog bite cases to health authorities immediately they got bitten, and said it was especially important to seek veterinary assistance.

Diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans are known as zoonotic diseases.

These diseases are typically transmitted through animal fluids such as blood or saliva, which could be transported through a number of means such as bites or eating the flesh of infected animals.