Some farm owners and unscrupulous traders in different part of the country have been involved in cattle fattening using high protean injection, toxic medicine and steroid hormone to increase their weights and improve carcass quality before Eid-ul-Adha.
Traders, however, said the practice is common in Bangladesh, with some farmers fattening cattle year-round and others primarily before Eid-ul-Adha.
However, for several years, awareness among buyers has been growing about fattened cows.
Sources said in Pabna, Sirajganj, Kushtia, Meherpur, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Manikganj, Faridpur, Madaripur, Mymensingh and the surrounding areas of Dhaka, cows are now fattened by consuming various harmful drugs and chemicals.
Farmers say that a doctor's prescription is not required to buy these medicines. The sellers provide them, and the prices are low. However, some traders deny this and say that they do not use any kind of medicine to fatten cows. Because there is a high demand for fattening cows using the indigenous method without injections and medicines.
The Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated on June 7 subject to the appearance of moon.
The government informed that this year, 12.4 million animals are ready for sacrifice during the holy Eid. The number of well-fed cattle eligible for sacrifice is 12.47 million. Of these cattle, 56.29 million are cows and buffaloes, 68.38 million are sheep and goats and 5,512 are other species of animals. This year, there is a possibility of a surplus of about 20.68 million are cattle.
Experts say the meat of animals that are used in the free use of Palm tablets, steroids and dexamethasone in fattening cows can be very harmful to the human body. The dishonest process starts a month before Eid. In the hope of more profit, many farmers give steroids to cows without following the advice of veterinarians. In many cases, crooked doctors and various pharmaceutical companies also incite the farmers.
There is a risk of serious diseases including liver, kidney, heart and brain damage if you eat this beef, which is inflated and freshened with high doses of toxic chemicals. Every year, ahead of Eid, a group of greedy businessmen indulge in the dangerous and poisonous game of artificially fattening cows.
Animal experts say that fattening cows with food according to a legally recognized formula does not cause harm to their meat. But beef fattened with steroids is harmful. Steroids are mainly used in the treatment of asthma.
But if such drugs, such as dexamethasone or dekason, betamethasone and periactin, are given in excessive doses, the kidneys and liver of the cow are damaged, and water cannot be removed from the body. Due to this, the water is absorbed and goes directly into the beef.
Dr Ashraful Islam, a researcher of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said that unconscious cattle traders and farmers are using steroid hormones in the body of ten to fifteen percent of cows. Farmers are buying thin cows and feeding them harmful palm pills with food till Eid in the hope of extra profit. Allegedly, these poisonous pills are being illegally imported from different countries and are being sold in various drug stores and beef vendors' shops. At the instigation of doctors and various pharmaceutical company workers, poisonous steroids are being applied to cows.
Al Amin, a medicine seller of Savar, said that the traders buy these tablets and feed them to the cows to fatten them up. A tablet costs Tk 10. Although there are no rules for selling these drugs without prescription, they are being sold. In addition, there are injections. Each injection is sold for Tk 75. Where one tablet is supposed to be fed a week, unscrupulous farmers are feeding cows 4 to 5 pills a day. Cows raised with steroids and hormones are always silent due to illness.
Doctors said that eating chemically fattened beef can directly cause harmful steroid reactions in the human body. Consuming this meat creates a critical condition for patients with weak liver and kidney.
A doctor from the Bangladesh Veterinary Council, said that toxic drugs are definitely not flying into the country. Someone is bringing them. Those drugs are being used on animals. In the country, various injections of steroid items of the dexamethasone group are usually used to fatten saleable cattle. In addition, urea is fed.
Various types of high-dose vitamin mixtures are also fed orally. Stating that this tendency increases before the sacrifice, he said, "Steroids are not destroyed even in the heat of fire, which is the most dangerous."
Farmers said, "Last time I faced huge losses in the cattle business. I don't want to lose again this time.
There are several companies' sheets to fatten cows. However, apart from those sheets, antibiotic pills are also given. Because during Eid, buyers usually always look for fat cows. So, in the hope of extra profit, I am fattening thin and skinny cows."
A businessman named Shah Alam from Gazipur said, "The idea that fat cows in the Eid market mean injections is also not correct. However, I will not deny that many people fatten cows with medicines in the hope of more profit. There are good and bad in every business."
A deputy director of the Department of Livestock Services said, "We have surveillance systems in place at the district and upazila levels throughout the year. However, veterinary monitoring work starts three months before Eid al-Azha and farmers are taught how to fatten up their animals."
