About two out of 3.5 million bovines that are slaughtered in Bangladesh each year are smuggled in from India as the local market fails to meet the demand.
This information was disclosed by speakers at a media call organised on Sunday by the Sher-e Bangla Agricultural University to raise awareness ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.
“Smuggling of cattle before the Eid is an ‘open secret’,” said central livestock hospital’s chief Veterinary Officer ABM Shahid Ullah.
Speakers said the smuggled cattle bring with them hoof disease while many cattle traders use steroid on the cows to make them fat in a short time.
Steroid weakens immunity of the cows and it does not lose its effect even after the cooking of beef.
“Eating meat of a cow that has been made fat by steroids may harm our kidneys and liver and may also affect our immune system,” warned Associate Prof AKBM Saiful Islam of the university’s Medicine and Public Health department.
Shahid Ullah said livestock ministry officials and veterinary surgeons would be deployed at various cattle markets ahead of the Eid.
“The cattle smuggled in from India are old and don’t taste good. Cows suffering from hoof diseases develop sores on their hoofs and mouths within a week,” he said.
The livestock ministry arranges for vaccination of cows along the border to prevent spread of the disease.
Sher-e Bangla university’s Associate Prof Jahangir Alam said, around 1.8 million cattle are slaughtered during the Eid-ul-Azha alone.
He disclosed ways to identify foreign or diseased cows.
“Cows that have normal movements and don’t have swelled muscle are healthy.
“They lose their abilities to move about normally if they are fed medicine to gain fat,” he said.
Source: bdnews24
