A medical team led by a veterinarian will be deployed in all cattle markets under both the Dhaka North and South City Corporations as well as major markets elsewhere in the country ahead of Eid-ul Azha to check artificially fattened sacrificial animals.
The teams will diagnose sacrificial animals according to a request from the buyers and treat the animals in case of any illness.
The same kind of service will be provided in the upazila and district level major cattle markets across the country.
This decision was the outcome of yesterday's meeting between the Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Muhammed Sayedul Hoque along with Department of Livestock Service (DLS) Director General (DG) Dr Ajoy Kumar Roy, Joint Secretary Md Nur Ali and the DG of the Livestock Research Institute, Dr Najrul Islam.
Ajoy Kumar Roy presided over the meeting held in the LGED auditorium of Agargaon, which was called to address the growing concern about artificially fattened cattle.
The Minister called upon everybody not to panic as the number of artificially fattened cows is insignificant and the livestock officers have been handling the issue effectively.
DLS Chief Veterinary Officer ABM Shahidullah related the scientific method of fattening cattle. He said farmers feed a healthy cow proportions of a mixture of urea, molasses and straw (UMS) daily for about 4 to 5 months.
But a section of unscrupulous people allegedly use hormones and steroids to fatten the cattle quickly to make large profit ahead of Eid,
which is illegal under the Animal Feed Act 2010.
The officer said that these numbers are very small adding that around 2000 field officers across the country actively monitor the fattening process all the year adding that the monitoring has been strengthened this year.